Who Would Like This Book:
If you love stories that blend laugh-out-loud absurdity with raw honesty, this book is pure gold. Jenny Lawson delivers a wild, no-filter tour of her bizarre Texas childhood, offbeat family, and everyday mishaps with a stream-of-consciousness style that somehow feels both weirdly relatable and totally outlandish. Fans of memoirs with a comic twist - think David Sedaris or Tina Fey - but with a pinch more weird and a splash of TMI, will be in stitches. It's especially perfect for anyone who appreciates irreverent humor, enjoys quirky family anecdotes, or has ever felt like a lovable misfit. If you've read her blog, The Bloggess, you'll feel right at home.
Who May Not Like This Book:
This isn't everyone's cup of tea! Some readers find the humor too crude, the stories a bit too weird, or the constant stream-of-consciousness style exhausting. If you’re easily offended by profanity, frequent mentions of body parts (especially the word "vagina"), or topics like taxidermy and mental health delivered with a dark comedic twist, you might want to skip this one. Those who prefer tightly plotted memoirs or seek deeper moments of reflection and cohesion throughout might miss a traditional narrative arc. Memoir skeptics and folks who prefer their comedy less outrageous could bounce off this book pretty quickly.
About:
'Let's Pretend This Never Happened: A Mostly True Memoir' by Jenny Lawson is a hilarious and heartwarming memoir that delves into the quirky and chaotic life of the author. Lawson's writing style is described as raw, irreverent, and filled with profanity, as she shares anecdotes from her unusual childhood, struggles with mental health, and unique family dynamics. The book is a mix of funny and moving stories, with a focus on embracing one's uniqueness and finding humor in life's absurdities.
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Sensitive Topics/Content Warnings
The book contains discussions of mental illness, anxiety, depression, and some graphic descriptions that may be triggering for some readers.
From The Publisher:
The #1 New York Times bestselling (mostly true) memoir from the hilarious author of Furiously Happy.
"Gaspingly funny and wonderfully inappropriate."-O, The Oprah Magazine
When Jenny Lawson was little, all she ever wanted was to fit in. That dream was cut short by her fantastically unbalanced father and a morbidly eccentric childhood. It did, however, open up an opportunity for Lawson to find the humor in the strange shame-spiral that is her life, and we are all the better for it.
In the irreverent Let's Pretend This Never Happened, Lawson's long-suffering husband and sweet daughter help her uncover the surprising discovery that the most terribly human moments-the ones we want to pretend never happened-are the very same moments that make us the people we are today. For every intellectual misfit who thought they were the only ones to think the things that Lawson dares to say out loud, this is a poignant and hysterical look at the dark, disturbing, yet wonderful moments of our lives.
Readers Guide Inside
Ratings (62)
Incredible (17) | |
Loved It (21) | |
Liked It (13) | |
It Was OK (8) | |
Did Not Like (3) |
Reader Stats (175):
Read It (64) | |
Want To Read (65) | |
Did Not Finish (3) | |
Not Interested (43) |
2 comment(s)
I've been an avid reader of Jenny Lawson's blog, thebloggess.com, for a long time, so when her book came out I had to read it. Made up of mostly original material, with some coming from the blog, this book is hilarious and melancholy at the same time. I had to put it away at one point because I couldn't hold back my laughter, and I was afraid I'd have to explain to someone on the subway that my uncontrollable snorting was prompted by poop jokes.
The book tells the story of Jenny's life from childhood through the present day, but it always ties back to her hometown, parents, and little sister Lisa. I loved the way she made those connections to her past, creating a thread that held the narrative together.
Quick fairly amusing read. I felt there could be less rambling and less "I'm sooooo weird and quirky and crazy y'all!" I don't know, I grew up in the South in the country with a farmer dad, and I just didn't find her stories that shocking or unusual. Some of these tales are genuinely hilarious, and they would be just as hilarious without all the narcissistic self-talk.
What can you read after
Let's Pretend This Never Happened: A Mostly True Memoir?
About the Author:
Known for her sardonic wit and her hysterically skewed outlook on life, Jenny Lawson has made millions of people question their own sanity, as they found themselves admitting that they, too, often wondered why Jesus wasn't classified as a zombie,…
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