This is my year to chip away at the stack of unread books and get down to zero before buying new ones, despite my having had this exact same goal the last two CBRs and privately even before that. So what do I do? Read an entire book at the library to get around that whole “buying new ones” restriction. I feel like I put myself on a liquid diet to lose weight then started chugging condensed milk.
Anyway, I picked this up because apparently my local library doesn’t have Anna Kendrick’s autobiography, and the octospawn likes the library well enough that I could sneak a couple chapters in between managing his chaos.
It starts strong, and I’ve enjoyed Kirkman on Drunk History, so I was primed to enjoy it. She discusses her divorce in witty, relatable ways, and it’s refreshing to read about a divorce that seemed to be the best thing for all concerned. The majority of the strong feelings about her divorce seem to be in others’ reactions to it, including a projecting dentist, her own OBGYN, and innumerable friends. But the book needed that divorce as a unifying concept, and instead it just kind of… meanders. An essay about an ill fated stand up performance in Dublin is just kind of … there.
Which is unfortunate, because kirkman has a lot to say about relationships in general that’s worth reading. She discusses her new found singlehood, dating for better and worse as a divorcee, and her friend with benefits irreverently but intelligently, making her current path seem like the correct one for her without eliding over its difficulties or pretending it’s what everyone should do. It’s amusing, if not hysterical, but ultimately the lack of focus keeps it from being a five star book for me.
