Moab Is My Washpot

This is not a fabrication by Stephen Fry! Fry began his life as a dishonourable schoolboy with a penchant for lying, playing practical jokes, stealing, attempting suicide, bringing decaying moles to school as a science exhibit, being a genius for mischief, and leading a neurotic life of crime that landed him straight out of Pucklechurch Prison and into Cambridge University, where he rose to fame alongside actress Emma Thompson. He went on to play Oscar Wilde in the movie Wilde, co-star in A Civil Action, and write witty, intelligent books.

The focus of this captivating book—which is the best-written celebrity memoir of 1999—is Fry's first two turbulent decades. But read with caution! A Fry sentence may go in many different directions, such as a nuanced assessment of the wicked aspects of men and women or a resounding defence of hitting youngsters. Fry's deepest regrets seem to be the elusiveness of a particular boy's love and the fact that, despite his keen ear for music, Fry's singing voice can make listeners "claw out their inner ears, electrocute their genitals, put on a Jim Reeves record, throw themselves cackling hysterically onto the path of moving buses... anything, anything to take away the pain." It is by coincidence that Fry's time-travel novel Making History—which was a nominee for the 1998 Sidewise Award for Best Alternative History—becomes known. What is shockingly revealed about the actual world is that Fry's own Jewish uncle could have given a young, shivering Hitler the coat off his back.

Like Wilde, Fry's life is full with the school and jailhouse blues masked by a jaunty humour. Psalm 108:9, the title, describes King David's victory over the Philistines. In a similar manner and with more flair, Fry wins. -- Mark Appelo