A witty and provocatively written life story.
Debut memoir by the Australian comedian.
Early on, Gadsby delivers a hilarious self-assessment: “For most of my life I have been a financially insecure autistic Australian gender queer vagina-wielding situation who does not have a bird-like skeletal system. I might have had a reasonable shot with only one or two of those ‘quirks,’ but not the whole set, and certainly not with Cate Blanchett already in town hogging all the moody lesbian roles. But, honestly, my biggest impediment is that I’m quite lazy.” The author writes frankly about growing up the youngest of five children in Tasmania, sharing colorful childhood anecdotes about her dogs and her distinct inability to make friends. At 12, she suffered through two years of sexual abuse, followed by high school years as a “fat tomboy” haunted by social anxiety and crushes on other girls. Early in her life, Gadsby was aware of Tasmania’s enduring legacy of criminalizing homosexuality. As she matured and began exploring a natural talent for stand-up comedy, this inspired her to advocate for gay reform measures. She soon became a comedy festival favorite, and in 2018, she found on-screen success with her Netflix special, Nanette. As the memoir progresses, the author’s initially stiff prose brightens as she describes her blossoming as an adult with ADHD and autism. These diagnoses helped explain why she hated small talk, an aversion that manifested in an extremely awkward yet hysterical exchange with Jennifer Aniston at an Emmys party. Consistently self-effacing and contemplative, Gadsby acknowledges that her unique brand of deadpan observational comedy isn’t for everyone, especially since it often skewers “the two most overly sensitive demographics the world has ever known: straight white cis men and self-righteous comedians.” Often portrayed by audiences as a woman workshopping her personal demons on stage, Gadsby agrees, conceding that her platform has allowed her to “playfully interrogate my own story and unravel the immature and sometimes toxic versions of events that my younger, traumatized brain had settled on.”
A witty and provocatively written life story.Pub Date: March 29, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-984819-78-9
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Jan. 21, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2022
SEEN & HEARD
PERSPECTIVES
PERSPECTIVES
The author's youthfulness helps to assure the inevitable comparison with the Anne Frank diary although over and above the...
Elie Wiesel spent his early years in a small Transylvanian town as one of four children.
He was the only one of the family to survive what Francois Maurois, in his introduction, calls the "human holocaust" of the persecution of the Jews, which began with the restrictions, the singularization of the yellow star, the enclosure within the ghetto, and went on to the mass deportations to the ovens of Auschwitz and Buchenwald. There are unforgettable and horrifying scenes here in this spare and sombre memoir of this experience of the hanging of a child, of his first farewell with his father who leaves him an inheritance of a knife and a spoon, and of his last goodbye at Buchenwald his father's corpse is already cold let alone the long months of survival under unconscionable conditions.
Pub Date: Jan. 16, 2006
ISBN: 0374500010
Page Count: 120
Publisher: Hill & Wang
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2006
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.
The veteran actor, comedian, and banjo player teams up with the acclaimed illustrator to create a unique book of cartoons that communicates their personalities.
Martin, also a prolific author, has always been intrigued by the cartoons strewn throughout the pages of the New Yorker. So when he was presented with the opportunity to work with Bliss, who has been a staff cartoonist at the magazine since 1997, he seized the moment. “The idea of a one-panel image with or without a caption mystified me,” he writes. “I felt like, yeah, sometimes I’m funny, but there are these other weird freaks who are actually funny.” Once the duo agreed to work together, they established their creative process, which consisted of working forward and backward: “Forwards was me conceiving of several cartoon images and captions, and Harry would select his favorites; backwards was Harry sending me sketched or fully drawn cartoons for dialogue or banners.” Sometimes, he writes, “the perfect joke occurs two seconds before deadline.” There are several cartoons depicting this method, including a humorous multipanel piece highlighting their first meeting called “They Meet,” in which Martin thinks to himself, “He’ll never be able to translate my delicate and finely honed droll notions.” In the next panel, Bliss thinks, “I’m sure he won’t understand that the comic art form is way more subtle than his blunt-force humor.” The team collaborated for a year and created 150 cartoons featuring an array of topics, “from dogs and cats to outer space and art museums.” A witty creation of a bovine family sitting down to a gourmet meal and one of Dumbo getting his comeuppance highlight the duo’s comedic talent. What also makes this project successful is the team’s keen understanding of human behavior as viewed through their unconventional comedic minds.
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.Pub Date: Nov. 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-26289-9
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2020
PERSPECTIVES
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