[A] shockingly self-deprecatingly funny memoir...Janetti’s flaws are on display and he doesn’t care, and therein lies the comedy.”
—Vulture
“[Start Without Me] lives in the same universe, creatively and spiritually, as its predecessor, filled with first-person stories that range in tone from cunning to heartwarming and allow him to reflect on his life before he became a card-carrying member of the Hollywood establishment.”
—Hollywood Reporter
“Reading Gary Janetti’s second book was exactly what I needed to lift me out of my winter blues. It’s like sitting by your funniest friend at a cocktail party, listening to their hilarious asides about everything they’re observing. Give yourself the treat of his hilarious writing.”
—Buzzfeed
“If you think Gary Janetti's hilarious on Instagram, you should read him in print. The writer's latest collection of essays track his life from high school to the modern day, pointing out the absurd and obscene, and finding humor where it's least expected.”
—Town & Country
“Gary’s razor-sharp wit comes alive in Start Without Me. A hilarious collection of laugh out loud stories!”
—Andy Cohen
“Gary Janetti is a national treasure! Start Without Me had me screaming with laughter and seething with jealousy. But it also had me in tears. Because the sneaky secret about Gary is that as antisocial as he purports to be, no one writes with more connectedness or feeling. Sorry, Gary! Reading your book about how little you want to hang out with people is only going to make everyone want to hang out with you more.”
—Casey Wilson, New York Times bestselling author of The Wreckage of My Presence
“Gary Janetti is a master at mining his memories to give us the most absurd and hilarious stories about family, teenagers, fitting in, and growing up. Start Without Me is sharply observed, witty, and deeply relatable. It won’t surprise anyone that this book is laugh-out-loud funny but don’t let that fool you—it’s also big-hearted and surprisingly emotional.”
—Jennifer Close, bestselling author of Girls in White Dresses and The Hopefuls
“Gary Janetti is annoyingly funny. By annoying, I mean funnier than anything I could ever write. Which I guess kind of speaks to my own insecurities. Whatever. I rarely laugh out loud but with this book I did. A lot. So did my wife, who said things like, ‘Gary Janetti is so funny. I wish he were my husband.’ Am I a small, petty man jealous of Gary Janetti’s talent? Yes. Should Start Without Me be read, and re-read by everyone I know? A resounding yes!”
—John Kenney, winner of the Thurber Prize for American Humor and the New York Times bestselling author of Love Poems (for Married People)
“Writer and producer Janetti (Do You Mind If I Cancel?) briskly trots through the most memorable moments of his life in this hilarious outing. In vignettes packed with zingers, Janetti reveals how his refusal to live on any terms but his own took root early. Pithy and profane, this entertains from start to finish.”
—Publishers Weekly
Past Praise for Gary Janetti
"From “Family Guy” to his own Instagram account, Janetti has been behind some of his generation’s greatest comedy. This book of essays is no exception."
—The New York Times
"Gary Janetti's book is so rolling-on-the-floor funny, so brilliantly observant, and so full of heart, I'm sure a jealous Prince George will decree that Gary be locked up in the Tower of London."
—Kevin Kwan, New York Times bestselling author of the Crazy Rich Asians trilogy
"The writing of Gary Janetti, whether televised or tweeted, is famously incisive and sharp-tongued. What a revelation it was, therefore, to discover in these revealing personal essays an artist of great tenderness and vulnerability. And he's still funny as hell."
—Armistead Maupin, New York Times bestselling author of The Tales of the City
03/01/2022
In his latest essay collection (following Do You Mind If I Cancel?), Janetti (a producer of TV, including Family Guy and Will & Grace) recalls growing up in New York City with his mother, father, and sister. A consistent theme of Janetti's essays is the experience of not fitting in (at home; at school); he describes struggling to make friends as a child and says it was easier for him to relate to adults than to kids his own age. Some of Janetti's are funnier than others, and some might be too unrelatable to readers. The memoir's highlight is Janetti's account of his mother's and his aunt's conversations about his grandmother, who died shortly before the author was born; here Janetti reveals a softer side of himself, explores his Italian roots, and reflects on his grandmother's life. As in his previous book, here Janetti balances humor and seriousness in writing about the moments in life that have defined him. VERDICT While the cynical humor will not be for everyone, Janetti's memoir will be a solid choice for those who liked Do You Mind If I Cancel? or who follow his social media.—Michelle Lettus
2021-12-29
A maestro of the mundane strains to lend substance to his humor.
In his second book, Janetti, a TV writer, producer, and actor, delivers a narrative full of stratospherically over-the-top pronouncements and lurid asides—and that’s just about his childhood in Queens. In his account of growing up gay, the author visits many familiar touchstones, occasionally uncorking a tart observation, though few are terribly original. Janetti holds forth on his distaste for the outdoors, tribulations in high school gym class, the fallacy of college preparing one for life, musical theater, and his tendency toward misanthropy: “I’m constantly maneuvering myself through life to be the farthest away as possible from people,” he writes, not quite tongue-in-cheek. “If I can hear your voice you’re too close.” It may be shtick, but the author can also be venomous at times, and his wit seems labored. “Maybe I met enough people over the years to realize that they just start repeating themselves after a while,” he writes. “So you’re never really meeting someone new. Just another version of someone else you know. ‘I already have one of you,’ I often find myself thinking while talking to a person I’ve just met.” The pieces in this collection allow the author to ramble on incessantly, usually about trivial matters. While it’s true that great comedy often springs from such preoccupations, the majority of Janetti’s jokes fall flat. His self-deprecating recollections cannot hide the fact that much of his comedy is dismissive or whiny. While there is solid advice for 20-somethings entering the world of independence—and a few touching moments—sarcasm is the principal arrow in his quiver, and it gets tiresome. Being judgmental can be wickedly amusing in a Woody Allen on-a-park-bench-pillorying-people sort of way. But it’s a double-edged sword. Janetti’s “vulnerability,” when revealed, is simultaneously so snarky that it’s hard to empathize with him.
Superficial and arch to a fault.
