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3.97 AVERAGE
3.97 AVERAGE
Very raw, emotional story from Tig concerning the worst year of her life. Pretty quick read, and I really enjoyed the dry humor from this comedian as she discusses sickness, death, heart break, and family.
dark
emotional
reflective
fast-paced
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
dark
funny
inspiring
lighthearted
sad
fast-paced
I'm grateful to learn more insights on such an interesting, weird, and funny human. Stoked to see her on the next season of Discovery.
Wish I wouldn't have started this book on Father's Day and had to listen to the first hour be about Tig's mother dying, but....
Brilliant, poignant, heavy and light at the same time, full of classic Tig humor. Even better: listened to the audiobook version, where Tig is the reader, which made the humor even more spot on.
Brilliant, poignant, heavy and light at the same time, full of classic Tig humor. Even better: listened to the audiobook version, where Tig is the reader, which made the humor even more spot on.
I really enjoyed this book. It was not at all what I expected but in a good way.
dark
emotional
funny
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
I read a Guardian article about Notaro, I think, and promptly shelved her book. There's a lot to recommend it: Notaro is, as you would expect of a comedian, funny, and her humour translates well to the longer form. There's also just...how do I put this? Distress often makes for more compelling material than happiness, and although none of what Notaro went through is something I'd wish on anyone, when put all together there's a certain element of how does one deal with all of that?
I'm giving this three stars rather than four because there are a couple of things that fail to convince me—structural things, I guess. I love the parts where I can read it just as...as a memoir rather than a celebrity memoir? Maybe that's unfair, but I'm less interested in the story of how Notaro's stand-up routine took off and catapulted her into a different level of success than I am in the material that led to that routine, and in her thoughts about balancing grief and humour. If I were rating this solely in the context of celebrity memoirs, I think I'd go higher, but in the overall sea of memoirs/books, there you go.
During my wretched four months, I heard "God never gives you more than you can handle" way more than I could handle. But I assure you that C-diff, the death of my mother, and breast cancer were each, individually, more than I could handle. For all of them to essentially be happening at the same time—peppered with a breakup—put me way beyond my limit. (loc. 1847)Notaro is at her best, I think, when she's talking about her childhood, partly because there's so much material for her to draw on and partly because she's had more time to look back and interpret that material.
I assumed that if I was tested, I would qualify for special education, so I immediately accepted that I was intellectually inferior and began grading my own tests by writing an F at the top and then putting my head down and taking a nap while others tried to figure out the square root of this or that. (loc. 409)There's so much in there, and it's wonderfully compelling. Think what that says about expectations, or the way kids interpret the way adults treat them... She's next at her best, I think, with the material from those awful four months, striking a delicate balance between humour and pain.
Needing my mother to comfort me about her death was an insatiable, unresolvable problem. And now, having cancer without having a mother brought on a similar, and similarly insurmountable, problem: I needed to go home, but I would forever be unable to. (loc. 1383)There's enough levity throughout the book that the reader isn't drowning in the pain of those months, but it also just...feels really honest, really relatable.
I'm giving this three stars rather than four because there are a couple of things that fail to convince me—structural things, I guess. I love the parts where I can read it just as...as a memoir rather than a celebrity memoir? Maybe that's unfair, but I'm less interested in the story of how Notaro's stand-up routine took off and catapulted her into a different level of success than I am in the material that led to that routine, and in her thoughts about balancing grief and humour. If I were rating this solely in the context of celebrity memoirs, I think I'd go higher, but in the overall sea of memoirs/books, there you go.
Raise your hand if Tig is one of your favorite humans on this planet!
(raises hand while positively writhing with excitement)
I came across Tig's existence while listening to one of my favorite podcasts, "2 Dope Queens." (SHOUT OUT TO PHOEBE AND JESSICA, I LOVE YOU AS WELL). She was a guest star and I was completely enamored with her sense of humor and just, the way she seemed so, human. She really seemed like the cat's pajamas. (What?) I was hooked and wanted to learn more, so I picked up her book and fell even more in love.
If you want to be slammed in the face with a story that is genuine, tragic, hilarious, inspiring, etc etc etc, read this. And then listen to her comedy albums. More specifically, "Live." But also all of them.
FAVORITE BITS.
“Why can so many of us only express our true feelings onto a blank slate: a diary page, the sky, an unconscious loved one, a tombstone?”
“While you’re alive, you should feel alive. I thought about how tomorrow or a week from now, or whatever date people tell themselves is the big day—a party, an award show, a holiday—is no more important than the event of today. I thought: “Every day is the day.”
“He declared that he now realized it’s not the child’s responsibility to teach the parent who they are; it’s the parent’s responsibility to learn who their child is.”
“I cannot express how important it is to believe that taking one tiny—and possibly very uncomfortable—step at a time can ultimately add up to a great distance.”
(raises hand while positively writhing with excitement)
I came across Tig's existence while listening to one of my favorite podcasts, "2 Dope Queens." (SHOUT OUT TO PHOEBE AND JESSICA, I LOVE YOU AS WELL). She was a guest star and I was completely enamored with her sense of humor and just, the way she seemed so, human. She really seemed like the cat's pajamas. (What?) I was hooked and wanted to learn more, so I picked up her book and fell even more in love.
If you want to be slammed in the face with a story that is genuine, tragic, hilarious, inspiring, etc etc etc, read this. And then listen to her comedy albums. More specifically, "Live." But also all of them.
FAVORITE BITS.
“Why can so many of us only express our true feelings onto a blank slate: a diary page, the sky, an unconscious loved one, a tombstone?”
“While you’re alive, you should feel alive. I thought about how tomorrow or a week from now, or whatever date people tell themselves is the big day—a party, an award show, a holiday—is no more important than the event of today. I thought: “Every day is the day.”
“He declared that he now realized it’s not the child’s responsibility to teach the parent who they are; it’s the parent’s responsibility to learn who their child is.”
“I cannot express how important it is to believe that taking one tiny—and possibly very uncomfortable—step at a time can ultimately add up to a great distance.”