Samantha Irby

BIBLIOGRAPHIC DETAILS
(Print: 3/31/2020; 9780525563488; Vintage; 336 pages)
Audio: 2/2/2021; 9780593170700; Penguin Random House Audio Publishing Group; Duration 10:07:34 (10 parts).
(Film: No).

SUMMARY/ EVALUATION:
I doubt that I am the first, or will be the last, person to comment on this, but an unwelcome oh-so-prominently discordant note in this book for me was Ms. Irby's excessively liberal, to the point of compulsive, habit of inserting F***, G*D* and B*tch everywhere; sluffing them off in sentences like so much dandruff. (Sorry, I think the book’s influence is still with me.)
Right now, (apparently in her previous books, her blog, and in this book) though, it is precisely that category of vocabulary that is a large part of her brand, and I suppose, what makes those to whom this book is hilarious, enjoy it so much.
She clearly has an audience, and isn’t likely to leave it, though I do find her clever enough to do so—I mean, she could write and speak interestingly without that. In fact, the book opens with an abundance of it that she couples with vivid descriptions of body functions gone awry, but the second half, that gets to the more interesting stuff about TV writing and book producing has much less of it.
That said, I almost always enjoy a biography (or autobiography): It's always interesting to learn about other people's lives, and this one is no different. I love that Sam, in her non-conformist Aquarian way, can bravely and very successfully make her way in the world despite what sounds like a hideous childhood and an abundantly (un?)fair share of trials and tribulations. She is gutsy, humble, and full on interesting, if not always useful, advice (some delivered, not as advice, but as remedies she has employed, and some delivered as anti-advice). She expresses her self-opinion as being not so bright and not so ambitious but all evidence is to the contrary.
I selected this book during my ‘Goodreads, pick-one-from-every-category nominated Best Books of 2020’ frenzy. I've had it on hold, and then kept postponing delivery for a couple of months until now. I'm pretty sure it was from the "humor" category, the one I am least likely to intentionally browse, because while I do laugh, most things that attempt to be funny, just aren't to me---so if I was supposed to laugh a lot, it’s probably not Ms. Irby's fault that I only chuckled here and there.

AUTHOR / NARRATOR Samantha Irby (2/13/1980). According to Wikipedia, Samantha “is an American comedian, author, and blogger.[1][2] She runs the blog ‘bitches gotta eat’, where she writes posts about her personal life and events.[3] Irby also co-hosted the live lit show Guts and Glory in Chicago with Keith Ecker until 2015, when the show ended its run.[4]
In 2016 FX announced that they had purchased the television rights to Irby's 2013 memoir ‘Meaty’ and her blog, with the intent to adapt them into a series.[5]”
I think only she could narrate this the way she meant it to be heard, and she does a great job.

GENRE:
Autobiography, essays, non-fiction, humor

LOCATIONS:
Chicago, IL; Kalamazoo, MI; Hollywood, CA

TIME FRAME
1980-2020

SUBJECTS:
Night clubs; Sports bars; Bowell dysfunction; Perimenopause; Menstruation; Personal fashion; Lesbians; body care; television production, poverty, home life; home care; childhood; personal finance; African American; Midwest; black authors; self-image; over-weight; daily activities; writing profession

SAMPLE QUOTATION:
From Chapter 1: “Into the Gross”
“We live up the street from a middle school, and children are already on their way home, for fuck’s sake, so I don’t feel bad having six Diet Cokes in a row. I’ll finish my water, but, like, I don’t ever want to be too hydrated. All these magazines tell you how you should really be drinking your weight in water every day, and all these movie stars would have you believe their skin glows because of that water bottle they’re carrying around, and I believe them, but also, why doesn’t anyone ever talk about how much peeing you will have to do? I no longer have a pelvic floor, Jennifer Aniston. I cannot just be gulping down Smartwater with reckless abandon!
After consuming all the liquids I’m going to for the entire day, I settle down to work, which I’m really going to do as soon as I put on a little cream highlighter and blush that no one else is ever going to see. My work: I occasionally write jokes on the Internet for free because I am the last person on Earth who still has a blog. Sometimes I have freelance projects, but there’s nothing right now. No one is going to pay me to write another book about nothing for at least the next two years. Unfortunately, I don’t have anything new or exciting to say online and absolutely zero paying scams, so my heart sinks as it dawns on me that I have gotten up and gotten dressed just to read what other people are saying on Twitter. This is the glamorous life of a writer.”

RATING:
3 stars—but, with me, that’s not that bad of a rating for a “humor” book.

STARTED-FINISHED
2/26/2021-3/3/2021
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