Review – Stephanie Wittels Wachs’ Everything is Horrible and Wonderful is a moving tribute to the late Harris Wittles

Vampires can’t die unless their heart is stopped. But like, same with humans? just havin some fun with thought experiments, i dunno.
— Harris Wittels (@twittels) February 13, 2015

Harris Wittels was many things — an irreverent stand-up comedian, a writer on shows like Parks and Recreation and The Sarah Silverman Program, a beloved guest on comedy podcasts, a diehard Phish fan, and the inventor of the “humblebrag.” One of comedy’s rising stars, he was about to begin work on Aziz Ansari’s Master of None show for Netflix before he passed away from a drug overdose in 2015. He was 30-years-old.

Harris’ sister Stephanie Wittels Wachs pays tribute to the memory of her late brother with her new book, Everything Is Horrible and Wonderful: A Tragicomic Memoir of Genius, Heroin, Love, and Loss (Sourcebooks), a raw look at how Wittels’ addiction affected his life, along with all of those who cared about him.

Written in a confessional tone and often addressed to Wittles directly, the book oscillates between time periods, set before and after Harris’ overdose. Growing up in a close-knit family, we follow Harris’ early love of comedy as it grows into a career, with his witty and often nonsensical point of view earning him some of the most prestigious comedy jobs in Hollywood. Constantly over-worked and over-stressed, a simple injury leaves Wittles addicted to prescription painkillers, which eventually spirals into full-on heroin addiction.

With the ever-growing opioid crisis, Wittles’ story is sadly far too common, but Wach is able to to bring the pain and loss of Wittles’ death to life with this heartbreaking book. There are the trips in and out of rehab, the constant promises of sobriety, the celebrity friends (Aziz Ansari pens a moving introduction to the book), but what really stands out about Wittles’ story is just how easy it can be for someone to slide completely into the clutches of addiction, even with the love and support of family and friends.

Everything Is Horrible and Wonderful is often uncomfortably raw. Much of the book feels like a diary entry written by someone still in the throes of grief (the book grew out of a piece Wachs wrote for Medium). It can be difficult to read the thoughts of someone still processing their pain and anger, but Wachs manages to balance that darkness with her own self-deprecating comments about her life and family. That balance is no simple feat — while Wittles was battling his demons, Wachs gave birth to a daughter with a hearing disability, which added a whole new level of stress and uncertainty to her life.

While much of Wach’s book is truly gut-wrenching, it’s hard not to crack up at the nuggets of Wittles’ jokes and anecdotes peppered throughout, from purposefully sabotaging meetings with high-ranking executives just to make his friends laugh, to claiming that every girl had, “at minimum,” a 20% crush on him.

Wach’s book is a moving tribute to her brother, a terrifying look at addiction, and most of all, a great encapsulation of Wittles’ hilarious and bizarre world view. He may be gone too soon, but Wittles has left behind a veritable gold-mine of comedic insanity that people will still be discovering and sharing years from now. Wachs’ book not only humanizes her brother, but should also offer some solace for others who have been affected by addiction.