This was the second celebrity memoir I read in 2021 where I did not know the celebrity haha (the first being Crying in H Mart). I hadn’t heard of Lindy West, and still haven’t seen any of her comedy, but the book was enjoyable enough.

Each essay explores Lindy’s life in a different way: What means to be fat, a woman in comedy, to take down rape jokes, confront a boss, etc., with her own sense of humour and wit. They all felt like short essays that were easily digestible, and I read the book quite quickly.

But for all that I didn’t enjoy the book all too much. I didn’t like her humour, and I’d read Women and Other Monsters, another book of essays by Jess Zimmerman, that touches on a lot of similar topics that I liked a lot better. I think the tone played the biggest part in that, as I just didn’t connect with how Lindy told her stories. 

However, the book raised great discussions at book club, where we each have had our own stories confronting bosses, and sexism, and we all admired Lindy and women like her to put themselves out there in such vulnerable ways to make the world a better place. We talked at length about this, and I think we all were inspired by Lindy’s stories.