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(More customer reviews)I can't remember the last book I read that made me laugh as well as cry. This is a good'un: a must have for any Richard Pryor fan. And if you weren't a Rain Pryor fan before, you will be after reading this. I am proud of Rain and she should be proud of herself. She really did her thing on this one. She didn't hold back, she let it all out. This book is not sugar-coated at all. She's brutally honest just like her dad.
This book was so moving to me because I can relate to Rain in several different ways. My father was also abusive. My father abused alcohol and drugs and went on violent rampages. My father also believed that money was equivalent to an apology or an expression of love. Rain recalled that a good solid hug would have been much better than a new car. I can definitely relate to that. My father also ended up wheel-chair bound and died from a debilitating disease (Parkinson's). It's not easy watching someone you love deteriorate like that no matter how bad of a parent they were. And like Rain, no matter what my father did, I still loved him very much.
I know Richard is looking down on her beaming with pride. While he never recovered from his troubled childhood, she did. And she did it with grace and a forgiving spirit. Bless her heart, with two unstable parents, it's amazing what's she's done with her life. Though she dabbled with alcohol and drugs, she never became an addict. She was also blessed to find a good husband unlike many daughters of abusive fathers. Hats off to you Rain!
This book is definitely a page-turner, as a matter of fact, I didn't put it down once I started reading it. I read the whole thing in one sitting. An easy read, this book is also filled with some really nice photos. And the photos are not only in the middle of the book, they're placed here and there throughout the book which is very nice. There's a touching photo of Rain and her father taking a nap together. She looks just like her dad and she's funny just like him too.
This book also revealed Jennifer Lee's true colors. Jennifer was Richard's last wife, wife #5 and wife#7. I was convinced she really loved Richard, had forgiven him for the way he'd treated her and wanted to take care of him in his time of need. That would explain her marrying him when he was wheel-chair bound, nearly in a vegetative state and dependent on her for his survival, right? WRONG! She had dollar signs written all over her. I once admired her for trying to keep some dollars coming in for Richard. She helped to get his TV show released on DVD, she helped put together his 9 CD box set and she also appeared on his Comedy Central Special, "I Ain't Dead Yet." But I guess I didn't stop to think that by being his wife/caretaker, she got to cash some chips in too for herself. She did a good job handling Richard's business affairs but she was wrong for keeping him away from his children. She also had him change his will shortly before he died which left the bulk of his estate to her. Now I'm not saying she shouldn't have gotten anything, but she shouldn't get everything. Richard's daughter Elizabeth is contesting this in court. I hope she wins. Shame on you Jennifer.
If you're a fan of Richard or Rain, you won't be disappointed with this one. Rain has a beautiful spirit and like her father, she has a special way of touching people with her words. You go Rain!
Click Here to see more reviews about: Jokes My Father Never Taught Me: Life, Love, and Loss with Richard Pryor
This is a loving yet brutally honest memoir by the daughter of comedy legend Richard Pryor. Rain Pryor was born in the idealistic, free-love 1960s. Her mother was a Jewish go-go dancer who wanted a "tribe of rainbow children," and her father was Richard Pryor, perhaps the most compelling and brilliant comedian of his era. In this intimate, harrowing, and often hilarious memoir, Rain depicts a disturbing childhood in the shadow of her celebrated father. Rain's memoir is a complicated all-American tale. Her home life was infused with drugs and sex; at age eight she sat down to Thanksgiving dinner with the words, "Daddy, the whores need to be paid." "Jokes My Father Never Taught Me" is both lovingly told and painfully frank: the story of a girl who grew up adoring her father even as she feared him - and feared for him, as his drug problems grew worse. In 1980, he was nearly killed in a "revolutionary suicide attempt. And in his later years, as he succumbed to multiple sclerosis, Rain saw her father reduced to watching the Comedy Channel for hours on end.Rain Pryor's book gives an unprecedented look at the life of a legend of comedy, told by a daughter who both understood the genius and knew the man.
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