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In Intensive Care, Jimmy Fallon Read ‘Man’s Search For Meaning’

The late-night host nearly lost his finger, but he found zen via Viktor Frankl

by
Jonathan Zalman
July 14, 2015
Theo Wargo/NBC/Getty Images for 'The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon'
Larry David And Jason Alexander Visit 'The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon' at Rockefeller Center in New York City, June 8, 2015. Theo Wargo/NBC/Getty Images for ‘The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon’
Theo Wargo/NBC/Getty Images for 'The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon'
Larry David And Jason Alexander Visit 'The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon' at Rockefeller Center in New York City, June 8, 2015. Theo Wargo/NBC/Getty Images for ‘The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon’

A couple weeks ago, Jimmy Fallon, host of NBC’s Tonight Show tripped on a braided rug in his kitchen, and fell. “I’m getting up and my finger is sideways,” Fallon told his audience today after a two week break. “It completely looks fake….like a cheap horror movie.”

Fallon would need 6 hours of microsurgery, and stayed in the intensive care unit of Bellevue hospital for ten days. “I started losing it halfway through,” he told the crowd. “I started reading books about the meaning of life.”

And which book did he bring out? Man’s Search For Meaning by Viktor Frankl—one of Tablet’s 101 Greatest Jewish Books.

Of the author, Tablet contributor Dara Horn wrote:

Viktor Frankl was a psychiatrist who continued practicing his profession at Auschwitz, in conversations with his fellow prisoners. In this short, readable, and life-changing book, he explains what most affected inmates’ survival, beyond chance: having something to live for, whether a person to love, creative work to complete, or an awareness of suffering’s meaning. His conclusions, which he later shaped into a new form of psychiatry called logotherapy, are applicable to any life. What matters most in life is not pursuing happiness, but pursuing meaning—not fulfillment, but commitment.

Said Fallon, “I absolutely loved it.”

Jonathan Zalman is a writer and teacher based in Brooklyn.