5/26 UPDATE: if you are curious and want to check out an excerpt, you can do so HERE!
Do you miss Happy Endings? If you have seen the show, then the answer is obviously YES SO MUCH OH MY GOODNESS PLEASE COME BACK! If you have not seen the show, then what are you doing? Get out of here and inject all three seasons directly into your eyeballs before returning!
Several days ago, the unfortunately canceled Happy Endings turned 10. 10! It seems like just yesterday, Alex was ditching Dave at the altar for a man in rollerblades. Several days ago, another wonderful thing happened: Casey Wilson, Penny of Happy Endings fame, released this collection of essays.
Wilson, a writer and actress who has worked on everything from Bride Wars through Black Monday, is an absolute delight. She is furiously honest; she does not care how you see her in the end, as she is going to tell you THE TRUTH and maybe that truth will help you along the way! Should it not, getting it all out may help her in the long run, too.
Wilson lost her mother unexpectedly about 15 years ago. She struggles with this loss every day, and she is refreshingly vulnerable. I do not know what it is like to feel that sort of incredible loss, but there are many other ways in which I saw myself in her: her obsession with candy, her attempts to break into show biz, her go-to of meeting all challenges with pure rage, and her tendency to buy COMPLETELY into all sorts of miracle fix-its that come her way. She is candid with her honesty, and while that often leads to hysterical moments of she and her husband throwing a beach towel over their bed so they can eat dinner in peace (hello, I have done that), sometimes it leads to her messy and complicated relationships with the world around her.
I did not always agree with her, but I will always support her ability to say and do what she needs to say and do. She comes from an incredible place of privilege, and she acknowledges that fact throughout, but her struggles with motherhood, addiction, grief, and rage are universal- she just has ways of helping to cope that most of us may never be able to access.
If you are not familiar with Casey to begin with, then I do not know if this is the book for you, but if you love irreverent but honest comedy and you lament the loss of Happy Endings every time you turn on your TV, then give yourself a treat and check out the audio version of The Wreckage of My Presence. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, and you’ll be delighted when you figure out that one of the ex-boyfriend Pauls she talks about is PAUL RUST!
