While I was not the prime audience for this collection, there were some excellent essays by the incomparable queer humorist Sam Irby that did have me laughing out loud several times through the self-deprecating, irreverent journey of loss, growing up, chronic illness, and working in Hollywood. I would say in these seventeen essays, I felt like there were many moments of quiet vulnerability met with a humble grace mixed with a lot of name-dropping.
Where I am very receptive to her writing as it appears in some of my favorite publications, these are a bit more focused on who she knows and what it was like feeling out of place writing for Sex and the City’s new season (a production that actually featured a good friend of mine in a lead role). Combined with a youthful but different-generational millennial zeal, there were some moments where I did some eye rolls in my reception of these, at best in the same manner as my feelings about Mindy Kaling’s nonfiction memoirs. Fun to learn about her and her experiences but didn’t really need celebrity and Hollywood gossip. In a sidenote, compare these professional anecdotes to the voice in an early edition of Michael J. Fox’s Future Boy where he does the same thing, albeit in a much more moderate manner. But is it that or is it just that I don’t care about that because I have become, demonstrably, old? Not a them problem, but a me as an audience member problem.
That said there was much to enjoy in these essays. My favorites were the funny way she would approach so many problems in her life – many related to bodily functions outside of her control. Very funny stuff overall and her approach to them is always a joy to behold. These were the moments I liked the most – the truly human, truly honest reflection of the grind of just being alive in this body and navigating the mortal existence without any way to know what comes tomorrow. But there’s the poop, there’s the living alone because if we didn’t, we’d murder the other human, and there’s the Dave Matthew’s Band.
A great book that adds to her collection of excellent, funny pieces. I just wish like her earlier stuff, it was a little lighter on the Hollywood business – unlike the rest of the book, it is something only a small handful of us have or will ever experience, and frankly, only a certain type of person even cares about.
Garrett Zecker 