A Sacrilicious Simpsons Family Biographer

The reason John Ortved's just-published book, The Simpsons: An Uncensored, Unauthorized History, is so effective lies with John Ortved's apparent self-awareness—John Ortved appears to be fully aware that, practically speaking, no one cares about John Ortved. Rather than a series of fawning deconstructions on what drew the author to his subject, An Unauthorized History consists mainly of interviews with Conan O'Brien, Hank Azaria, and a plethora of names easily recognizable from The Simpsons' credits. The result is an overstuffed oral history from as close to the source as one can get when the source is a family of cartoon characters.