Hits and Misses

By: Simon Rich

Narrated by: Simon Rich

A hilarious collection inspired by a former Saturday Night Live writer's real experiences in Hollywood, chronicling the absurdity of fame and the humanity of failure in a world dominated by social media influencers and reality TV stars.

Simon Rich is "one of the funniest writers in America" (The Daily Beast) - a humorist who draws comparisons to Douglas Adams (The New York Times Book Review) and James Thurber and P.G. Wodehouse (The Guardian). With Hits and Misses, he's back with a hilarious new collection of stories about dreaming big and falling flat, about ordinary people desperate for stardom and the stars who are bored by having it all.

Inspired by Rich's real experiences in Hollywood, Hits and Misses chronicles all the absurdity of fame and success alongside the heartbreaking humanity of failure. From a bitter tell-all by the horse Paul Revere rode to greatness to a gushing magazine profile of everyone's favorite World War II dictator, these stories roam across time and space to skewer our obsession with making it big - from the days of ancient Babylon to the age of TMZ.

©2018 Simon Rich (P)2018 Hachette Audio

Critic reviews

"Great writers tend to arrive when we need them most, and at this moment Simon Rich is a comedic godsend. Hits and Misses is a motherlode of silly, inventive, absurd brilliance. My admiration for Rich is rivaled only by my jealousy." (Conan O'Brien)

"Flights of fancy from preternaturally gifted humorist Rich.... Shades of Christopher Moore's slapstick...[and] Python-esque medieval farce.... He has a sweet spot between mockery and respect for old Hollywood...lovingly crafted comedies from a writer beginning to match wit with wisdom." (Kirkus)

"Simon Rich is the Stephen King of comedy writing. From the first lines, he pulls you into a world of hilarious, simple, kind, determined, dumb, and bizarrely proud characters who, like all of us, are terrified of being embarrassed. He is the funniest writer I have ever met and Hits and Misses is his best collection of stories." (John Mulaney)

Enjoyable set of comedic and sometimes thought-provoking short stories

If you enjoy fiction as something to amuse yourself and pass the time while you hurtle toward the grave, and you are (or have ever been) a thoughtful young adult working through intellectual status issues, you should certainly listen to this book.

If you’re looking for something deeper from fiction — new perspectives and heuristics on the world — there are even a few pretty valuable ideas here that will stick with you for a bit. The author’s worldview is consistent throughout, and even if it doesn’t have any particularly profound overall message, it is intelligent and self-aware and explores story premises to worthwhile effect.

I think that authorial worldview may be something like: “Might as well amuse yourself as you hurtle toward the grave, and isn’t it interesting to combine things in unexpected ways? Also social status and celebrity gossip are as essential as food and sleep, and I was born to Jewish American royalty of some sort or another in the 1980s.”

That last part might be relevant if you read fiction to develop empathy for others, although if that’s the case I’m guessing — and the author seems to be guessing too — that it’s a perspective you may already be familiar with. It’s the kind of worldview and writing you’d train an AI on if you wanted it to publish fiction in the New Yorker.

But the stories also contain a hint of the rising relative importance of family, parenthood, and relationships. Given my own stage of life, I’m quite interested to see how the author’s work evolved, and am on my way to check out his more recent work as soon as I finish this review. I expect it will be enjoyable, and I hope it will contain more insights about life that might change my own worldview for the better.

Re: the narration, it is the author reading and there are no issues with his voice or delivery. He doesn’t entirely go for it on a couple voices — e.g. the court jester’s comic voice — but that was probably the prudent choice.

Funny stories

I love compilations of stories, and even better when they're funny. I can alsonlosten to this one with my kids and laugh with them. Highly recommend!

funny

funny funny funny. need to write 15 words to be posted. hilarious enjoyable and lol

why?

why narrate ur own book with a voice like that? just get a professional for God's sake

Loved it

So funny. You will wish it never ended. He could go on and on telling stories, and I would sit and listen.

Simon Rich is the best

No one is writing funny prose this good today. Simon Rich is simply the best out there. Some of these stories I have listened to over again and played for friends.

This is what comic fiction can be.

i fuckin love simon rich

i knew this man was a great writer from reading stuff he’s published in papers and stuff but damn, i thoroughly enjoyed this this was great

Unique, clever, beautifully ridiculous!

Simon Rich has a one-of-a-kind comedic voice. All of his collections are head-shakingly amusing. I find myself laughing out loud frequently — which is embarrassing when I listen on my earbuds in a public place. His humor is … unique. If you are looking for generic, obvious comedy then this audiobook is not for you.

ENJOY!!

I Failed To Hear The Humor

After reading the summary, and nearly every review I was looking forward to an enjoyable afternoon of comedy and laughter. I could not have been more disappointed. After the first 30 minutes I thought about returning the book to Audible, but thought it had to get better based on the reviews. It never got any better I’m sorry to say. The stories were predictable and boring. Save your credit, I wish I had.