Let’s Pretend This Never Happened
A Mostly True Memoir
by Jenny Lawson
★★★★☆
I’m not really a “laugh out loud” kind of girl. This is why I don’t go to comedy clubs. The only time I went to one it was disastrous. The comedian was pissed because I wasn’t laughing at any of his jokes so he yelled at me! Anyway, the point is, it takes a LOT to make me actually laugh out loud and this book just killed me. I started laughing so loud while I was reading it in bed that my husband finally made me read the section I was in
aloud to him.
Jenny Lawson, better known online as The Bloggess, has been crossing lines and embarrassing her husband online for years. I first discovered her through the infamous metal rooster post and she’s been cracking me up ever since. Her memoir maintains her hilarious rambling style and it works well with the crazy (but true) stories she tells.
Lawson covers a lot of ground in her first memoir. We start with her childhood in a small town in Texas and her taxidermist father who can’t help but bring home some interesting “pets.” We follow her all the way through uncomfortable moments in high school, adventures in her HR job, a nervous weekend with other bloggers, meeting her boyfriend’s wealthy parents and some odd run-ins with Texas wildlife.
Her relationship with her long-suffering husband Victor is one of the funniest aspects of the book. The two are incredibly different, but they understand each other and that makes their relationship work.
I couldn’t stop laughing out loud at some of the mental pictures she paints, like her finance’s mother visiting her parents for the first time and driving up to see Lawson’s father boiling animal skulls in their yard.
But the book isn’t all laughs. There are some incredibly serious issues discussed as well. Lawson has struggled with anorexia, anxiety disorders, depression and more. She talks about each of those things with a bracing honesty and humor, but the edge of her literary voice is tinged with the pain of those struggles.
I think Jenny’s writing is both riotously funny and jarringly honest. Her irreverent style and adult language may not appeal to everyone, but I think fans of David Sedaris would love her.
I’ll leave you with a great example of Lawson’s writing style. If the following paragraph cracks you up, you’ll probably love the book. If it doesn’t, then don’t read the book, and also, what’s wrong with you?!? (Just kidding… kind of).
“Spell-check refuses to recognize the word “Chupacabras.” Probably because it’s racist. Spell-check, I mean, not chupacabras. Chupacabras are monsters from Mexico that suck blood out of goats. They don’t care what race you are. Bizarrely, spell-check is perfectly fine with the word “CHUPACABRA!” in all caps, which makes no sense at all. Unless it’s because it recognizes that you’d use that word only while screaming. Touché, spell-check. P.S. Actual words used in this book that spell-check insists are not real words: Velociraptors. Shiv. Chupacabra. Yay. It’s like spell-check doesn’t even want me to write my memoir.”
Here are a few other thoughts on the book…
Devourer of Books
Beth Fish Reads
