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 heartbreaking story of an emotionally battered child delivered with captivating candor and grace.
The former iCarly star reflects on her difficult childhood.
In her debut memoir, titled after her 2020 one-woman show, singer and actor McCurdy (b. 1992) reveals the raw details of what she describes as years of emotional abuse at the hands of her demanding, emotionally unstable stage mom, Debra. Born in Los Angeles, the author, along with three older brothers, grew up in a home controlled by her mother. When McCurdy was 3, her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer. Though she initially survived, the disease’s recurrence would ultimately take her life when the author was 21. McCurdy candidly reconstructs those in-between years, showing how “my mom emotionally, mentally, and physically abused me in ways that will forever impact me.” Insistent on molding her only daughter into “Mommy’s little actress,” Debra shuffled her to auditions beginning at age 6. As she matured and starting booking acting gigs, McCurdy remained “desperate to impress Mom,” while Debra became increasingly obsessive about her daughter’s physical appearance. She tinted her daughter’s eyelashes, whitened her teeth, enforced a tightly monitored regimen of “calorie restriction,” and performed regular genital exams on her as a teenager. Eventually, the author grew understandably resentful and tried to distance herself from her mother. As a young celebrity, however, McCurdy became vulnerable to eating disorders, alcohol addiction, self-loathing, and unstable relationships. Throughout the book, she honestly portrays Debra’s cruel perfectionist personality and abusive behavior patterns, showing a woman who could get enraged by everything from crooked eyeliner to spilled milk. At the same time, McCurdy exhibits compassion for her deeply flawed mother. Late in the book, she shares a crushing secret her father revealed to her as an adult. While McCurdy didn’t emerge from her childhood unscathed, she’s managed to spin her harrowing experience into a sold-out stage act and achieve a form of catharsis that puts her mind, body, and acting career at peace.
The heartbreaking story of an emotionally battered child delivered with captivating candor and grace.Pub Date: Aug. 9, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-982185-82-4
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 30, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2022
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
This moving, potent testament might have been titled “Black Lives Matter.” Or: “An American Tragedy.”
The powerful story of a father’s past and a son’s future.
Atlantic senior writer Coates (The Beautiful Struggle: A Father, Two Sons, and an Unlikely Road to Manhood, 2008) offers this eloquent memoir as a letter to his teenage son, bearing witness to his own experiences and conveying passionate hopes for his son’s life. “I am wounded,” he writes. “I am marked by old codes, which shielded me in one world and then chained me in the next.” Coates grew up in the tough neighborhood of West Baltimore, beaten into obedience by his father. “I was a capable boy, intelligent and well-liked,” he remembers, “but powerfully afraid.” His life changed dramatically at Howard University, where his father taught and from which several siblings graduated. Howard, he writes, “had always been one of the most critical gathering posts for black people.” He calls it The Mecca, and its faculty and his fellow students expanded his horizons, helping him to understand “that the black world was its own thing, more than a photo-negative of the people who believe they are white.” Coates refers repeatedly to whites’ insistence on their exclusive racial identity; he realizes now “that nothing so essentialist as race” divides people, but rather “the actual injury done by people intent on naming us, intent on believing that what they have named matters more than anything we could ever actually do.” After he married, the author’s world widened again in New York, and later in Paris, where he finally felt extricated from white America’s exploitative, consumerist dreams. He came to understand that “race” does not fully explain “the breach between the world and me,” yet race exerts a crucial force, and young blacks like his son are vulnerable and endangered by “majoritarian bandits.” Coates desperately wants his son to be able to live “apart from fear—even apart from me.”
This moving, potent testament might have been titled “Black Lives Matter.” Or: “An American Tragedy.”Pub Date: July 8, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-8129-9354-7
Page Count: 176
Publisher: Spiegel & Grau
Review Posted Online: May 5, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
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