Angry Optimist: The Life and Times of Jon Stewart

The life and times of Jon Stewart are more than the last fifteen years of helming The Daily Show with Jon Stewart as author Lisa Rogak writes. The unlikely rise of the short wise-cracking Jewish kid from Jersey rising to become one of the most influential, and comedic, voices of political commentary is a told expertly and without bias.

Given Stewart’s impact the last fifteen years, Rogak could have easily just given a brief synopsis of his life prior to January 1999 instead she spent the a third of the book detailing Stewart’s childhood, collegiate years, and life before and after deciding to go into comedy. Rogak gives the reader as glimpse to Stewart as a young man that will affect how he helmed The Daily Show, including the triumphs and the many failures that he experienced throughout the 1980s and 90s.

Once Rogak gets to Stewart’s tenure on The Daily Show, instead of just detailing the next decade and a half, she shows how Stewart made the show more in his style and how he was hands on than previous host Craig Kilborn. Throughout the last two-thirds of the book, Rogak tackles The Daily Show years not strictly chronologically but as a mixture of chronology and themes. This approached allowed Rogak to give the reader a fuller understand of Stewart and The Daily Show as a whole.

Rogak was very evenhanded in her approach to the overall view of Stewart, mixing praise and criticism from critics and how the viewing audience has seen Stewart. Triumphs and embarrassments are told in their detail as well has controversies surrounding the show from his interview style, to the lack of female writers, and his liberal bias. And as Stewart seems on the verge of a major shakeup in his professional life, Rogak writes about his possible transition to films as director not actor.

Given Jon Stewart’s continued presence within media, Lisa Rogak did an wonderful job in writing about his life and career. Although it is hard for an author not to have some bias for their subject, Rogak is able to give a balanced portrayal of Stewart in her book from accomplishments to stumbles. I thoroughly recommend this book to anyone who wants to understand the host of The Daily Show.

I received a free copy of this book via Goodreads First Reads.

When I stumbled across this book on Amazon.com I wondered how I hadn't heard of it before. A book about my favourite TV personality, who regularly interviews authors on his show? What have I missed? But now having read the book I understand the how and why. The book is essentially a cut and paste exercise of seemingly every interview Jon has done. And then interviews with other people talking about Jon. From what I could tell there appeared to be very little original reporting here. Certainly nothing from JS himself.

If, like me, you are a big JS fan but only know him from The Daily Show the book might provide some insight. But really if you google JS you could save yourself the dollars you would spend on the book. As a book in its own right I can't really say anything positive. I would describe this being edited, not written. It just reads as a series of quotes with some filler in-between. The fact that it was published at all probably says more about JS than the author.

You can learn more about Jon Stewart from reading his Wikipedia page and watching The Daily Show. If Rogak could actually get interviews with Stewart this book may have had more substance.

Jon Stewart may be easily dismissed by older Americans for his "fake news show" The Daily Show, but among younger Americans, his influence is unmatched. One statistic from Angry Optimist makes that clear: "According to Advertising Age, the median age of the average Daily Show viewer for the third quarter of 2004 was 35.7; in comparison, the median age for news shows on the three major networks was a whopping 60-plus. The age of the average O'Reilly viewer was pegged at 58" (p. 160). Stewart is clearly filling a need and a niche for political satire among young Americans who prefer their news delivered with laughs. This is why understanding Stewart's background, how he developed his talent, and his worldview are key to gaining insight into this critical phenomenon in American political culture.

The strength of Angry Optimist lies largely in its early chapters, detailing Stewart's life as a middle class, Jewish-American who lived a comfortable lifestyle in an affluent suburb, but, like most minorities in the United States, was ridiculed and excluded. Whether it was a passing comment from a WASP classmate, or anti-Semitic barbs he endured on the field playing soccer in college, humor became Stewart's way of handling his detractors.

It was also how he dealt with the pain of his family's break up at age 10, when his father left his mother. The financial struggles Stewart, his mother, and brother endured as a result marked him deeply.

Further on, though, the book becomes paragraphs and paragraphs of quotes minus deeper insight into his character and motivations. While it presents the basic information required of a biography, along with some heartwarming anecdotes (e.g. how he proposed to his wife), Angry Optimist became a dry read along the way.

One additional plus of the book is understanding a day in the life of the Daily Show. In other words, how each episode is put together, which is surprisingly very much like a "real" newsroom.

Angry Optimist presents an informative view of one of America's most prominent political satirists today, someone who has, and will no doubt have, considerable influence on younger U.S. voters. While weak in presentation in some parts, it offers a detailed enough look at his past, present, and possible future.

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Wouldn't recommend the book. Just seems like was written by compiling a bunch of google searches.

As a fan of Jon Stewart, I found it a really interesting "behind the scenes" look at Stewart. A very enjoyable book. I'd just finished the author's similar book about Steven Colbert, and would describe it in the same way. Would definitely recommend both.

I tend to be cautious with biographies of celebreties that I admire - the authors tend to either make the subject into a saint, or is pulling out all the stops to dig the dirt. This author did neither, but wrote an honest portrayal of this man, his career and what makes his show tick.

The beginning is a little rocky, but once she pushed past his childhood and got into his career, it really read much better. Thing I liked the most was that she was able to draw back the curtain and show a different side of Stewart that wasn't very pleasant ,it was obvious he didn't mind, because she quoted him many times from her interviews (yes I know that can be faked, but based on her tellings of things that I knew happened, I don't think so). And at the same time you can tell that the author respected him, and found as many good things about him as not so good. You probably need to be a fan of the show to like it, but even if not, you come away with a profound respect for the work which goes into it. I used to complain about only 4 shows a week and too many 2 week holidays. I won't any more....

Just okay. The author obviously did not work with Jon Stewart in writing this book. It left something to be desired as far as more insight into Mr. Stewart.

Who could NOT like Jon Stewart!!!?

Why didn't Stewart record this book in his own voice? I don't get it. Half the fun of an autobiography/memoir is actually hearing the author speak his thoughts. As much as I love this talented, intelligent individual, I cannot recommend the audiobook.