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bargainsleuth's review
5.0
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I don’t care about Roseanne Barr one way or the other. I only watched her show once in a great while growing up. But something drew me to the memoir her daughter just published. And what a story she has to tell.
This Will Be Funny Later: A Memoir is a must read, and I’m usually not one for memoirs of the unfamous. But the blurb I read was compelling, so much so that I burned an Audible credit to get the book. I was not disappointed. Pentland has led a very interesting life which she looks back on with humor and horror at the same time.
The stories Roseanne Barr crafted for her television show came straight from her home life, much to Pentland’s chagrin. When her mother moved the family to California from Colorado, she didn’t know what to expect. In a word, it was a s$%t show. Though she never specifically says it, Roseanne and her then husband were not the greatest of parents before they moved, and after their divorce and Roseanne’s marriage to comedian Tom Arnold, it got even worse.
Instead of dealing with her kids and their increasing troubles, Roseanne and Tom routinely shipped them off to fat farms, psych wards, wilderness camps and the like, to have someone else deal with the issues the kids were facing. And the things that happened to Pentland and other kids who faced a similar fate are at times shocking and unbelievable. An overhaul of the system had to happen, and I sure hope it has. But here’s the thing: Jenny Pentland has learned how to live with her screwed up childhood and tell it like it is with humor and grace and forgiveness for her mom. I don’t know that I could say the same if I went through all she did.
Surprisingly, even though Pentland is Roseanne Barr’s daughter, she doesn’t exactly spend a lot of time talking about her mom. She talks about her dad, Tom Arnold, her siblings and others, but she’s very careful about what she says about Barr. So even though this is a very raw and honest memoir, she’s still holding back a little because she still has a relationship with her mom. Maybe, through years of therapy, she’s found it best to just let go of her mother’s failings, which is what most kids should do when it comes to their parents.
All her life, the author just wanted to get married and have kids with no grand plans beyond that. Pentland’s life growing up and early adulthood were truly messed up, and it’s clear she’s come to peace with everything that happened to her. She has a husband and FIVE boys and lives in Hawaii, not far from her mom.
Don’t pick up this memoir if you’re a fan of Roseanne Barr. Pick up this memoir because you’re a fan of a well-written memoir that just so happens to have Barr as one of the many players in Pentland’s life. Her story is worth telling.
I don’t care about Roseanne Barr one way or the other. I only watched her show once in a great while growing up. But something drew me to the memoir her daughter just published. And what a story she has to tell.
This Will Be Funny Later: A Memoir is a must read, and I’m usually not one for memoirs of the unfamous. But the blurb I read was compelling, so much so that I burned an Audible credit to get the book. I was not disappointed. Pentland has led a very interesting life which she looks back on with humor and horror at the same time.
The stories Roseanne Barr crafted for her television show came straight from her home life, much to Pentland’s chagrin. When her mother moved the family to California from Colorado, she didn’t know what to expect. In a word, it was a s$%t show. Though she never specifically says it, Roseanne and her then husband were not the greatest of parents before they moved, and after their divorce and Roseanne’s marriage to comedian Tom Arnold, it got even worse.
Instead of dealing with her kids and their increasing troubles, Roseanne and Tom routinely shipped them off to fat farms, psych wards, wilderness camps and the like, to have someone else deal with the issues the kids were facing. And the things that happened to Pentland and other kids who faced a similar fate are at times shocking and unbelievable. An overhaul of the system had to happen, and I sure hope it has. But here’s the thing: Jenny Pentland has learned how to live with her screwed up childhood and tell it like it is with humor and grace and forgiveness for her mom. I don’t know that I could say the same if I went through all she did.
Surprisingly, even though Pentland is Roseanne Barr’s daughter, she doesn’t exactly spend a lot of time talking about her mom. She talks about her dad, Tom Arnold, her siblings and others, but she’s very careful about what she says about Barr. So even though this is a very raw and honest memoir, she’s still holding back a little because she still has a relationship with her mom. Maybe, through years of therapy, she’s found it best to just let go of her mother’s failings, which is what most kids should do when it comes to their parents.
All her life, the author just wanted to get married and have kids with no grand plans beyond that. Pentland’s life growing up and early adulthood were truly messed up, and it’s clear she’s come to peace with everything that happened to her. She has a husband and FIVE boys and lives in Hawaii, not far from her mom.
Don’t pick up this memoir if you’re a fan of Roseanne Barr. Pick up this memoir because you’re a fan of a well-written memoir that just so happens to have Barr as one of the many players in Pentland’s life. Her story is worth telling.
aerialwhitney's review
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
tense
medium-paced
4.0
kwilkins12's review
5.0
Heartbreaking and insightful and funny. Jenny Pentland tells about the shitstorm that is her family's life when her mom becomes famous.
bookworm_ran's review
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
reflective
sad
medium-paced
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Panic attacks/disorders, Medical trauma, Addiction, and Mental illness
Moderate: Alcoholism
caitlyn888's review
4.0
The sitcom "Roseanne" is one of my favorite TV shows of all time - I own the complete series and rewatch the episodes repeatedly as a comfort tool. So when I saw that Roseanne Barr's daughter had written a memoir about her life during those years, I knew I had to pick it up. I came to terms long ago with the fact that Roseanne Conner the character is very different from Roseanne Barr the person, so that helped prepare me a bit for what I was about to learn.
But only a bit. Holy crap. I had previously heard that Roseanne's real daughters wanted to use a coffin as a bed, but their actual lives were way too harsh for TV. Jenny Pentland has been through some shit. All the reform schools, Weight Watchers camps, and wilderness survival camps, combined with her mother's problematic marriage and paparazzi-frenzied life, and it's astonishing to see that she got to adulthood in one piece. (Though she talks at the end of the book about her recent journey into therapy for PTSD, which thank god, cuz that was a lot of trauma to endure at such a young age.)
Jenny maintains a balance between defending and critiquing her mom's actions over the years, while she also remains pretty grounded as the daughter of a celebrity. She also gives "Roseanne" fans a behind-the-scenes glimpse of the making of the show, and it was interesting to hear her talk about real life things that happened in her family that then ended up being plot lines in the show.
But only a bit. Holy crap. I had previously heard that Roseanne's real daughters wanted to use a coffin as a bed, but their actual lives were way too harsh for TV. Jenny Pentland has been through some shit. All the reform schools, Weight Watchers camps, and wilderness survival camps, combined with her mother's problematic marriage and paparazzi-frenzied life, and it's astonishing to see that she got to adulthood in one piece. (Though she talks at the end of the book about her recent journey into therapy for PTSD, which thank god, cuz that was a lot of trauma to endure at such a young age.)
Jenny maintains a balance between defending and critiquing her mom's actions over the years, while she also remains pretty grounded as the daughter of a celebrity. She also gives "Roseanne" fans a behind-the-scenes glimpse of the making of the show, and it was interesting to hear her talk about real life things that happened in her family that then ended up being plot lines in the show.
bethreadsandnaps's review
3.0
I heard about this when the author (Roseanne Barr's daughter) spoke on a book author interview podcast. It piqued my interest at the time.
Usually I give memoirs 4 stars unless I think it's particularly not good (like this) or particularly good (and will give 5 stars). I put this memoir in the former category.
Jenny and I are about the same age, and I knew it would be hard to be Roseanne's daughter. Roseanne has always been a controversial figure. When I think of all the controversy surrounding Roseanne, two instances come to mind: 1) racist tweeting and 2) the Tom Arnold years. In many ways, I think the Tom Arnold years were worse because that was YEARS of professional and personal upheaval. Even as a teen I knew the Roseanne and Tom combo was a chaotic mess with constant drama on the set and in their personal lives, and now that there has been time to reflect, it really was a drug-fueled mess combined with combative personalities and throw in some trauma and mental disorders for good measure.
As Roseanne's daughter, Jenny was thrown into the sea when Roseanne became abruptly famous and got her own show and left her father. She even indicates they were like the Beverly Hillbillies when they got to LA. Jenny turned to food early in life for comfort, and it just got worse once her mother became famous and her life spiraled. So Roseanne sent Jenny and her sister Jessica to a series of reformatories/rehabs/wilderness schools for the bulk of their tweens and teens (aka the Tom Arnold years). None of these seemed like official boarding schools.
Roseanne was BUSY during the timing of Jenny's teen years in addition to having a high-profile romance and marriage with a drug addict. Should Jenny have stayed with Roseanne and Tom, went with her dad and his new wife (this is where I suspect she would have had the most "normal" life), gone to these series of "placements" like fat camps and wilderness schools, or went to a boarding school with stable parent-like figures? It's difficult to say, but in my opinion being full-time with Roseanne and Tom during those 8 years would have been worse than what she went through at the series of "schools."
I did have a big question: Where did her father go for her teen years and adulthood? He seemed very stable in her early childhood, and then he got into a new relationship after the divorce and...disappeared?
Jenny is still very close with Roseanne (who likely funds a lot in her life, including employing her husband for a while), so there's not a lot of finger pointing toward Roseanne. And then the racist tweeting part is very much glossed over. Hey, I can see why she wouldn't want to stop the money train.
And here ultimately is why I gave it a lower star rating (in addition to dismissing her father pretty early in her memoir): There was very little analysis, even retrospectively, of her life. Roseanne Barr's children need therapy. She did mention therapy a little here and there, but she doesn't seem to the point where she has truly processed her life before she was 25. Given that she's in her late 40s, I expected more in that realm. So I was disappointed overall, and I thought many points in the memoir were messy/chaotic in their recounting.
Usually I give memoirs 4 stars unless I think it's particularly not good (like this) or particularly good (and will give 5 stars). I put this memoir in the former category.
Jenny and I are about the same age, and I knew it would be hard to be Roseanne's daughter. Roseanne has always been a controversial figure. When I think of all the controversy surrounding Roseanne, two instances come to mind: 1) racist tweeting and 2) the Tom Arnold years. In many ways, I think the Tom Arnold years were worse because that was YEARS of professional and personal upheaval. Even as a teen I knew the Roseanne and Tom combo was a chaotic mess with constant drama on the set and in their personal lives, and now that there has been time to reflect, it really was a drug-fueled mess combined with combative personalities and throw in some trauma and mental disorders for good measure.
As Roseanne's daughter, Jenny was thrown into the sea when Roseanne became abruptly famous and got her own show and left her father. She even indicates they were like the Beverly Hillbillies when they got to LA. Jenny turned to food early in life for comfort, and it just got worse once her mother became famous and her life spiraled. So Roseanne sent Jenny and her sister Jessica to a series of reformatories/rehabs/wilderness schools for the bulk of their tweens and teens (aka the Tom Arnold years). None of these seemed like official boarding schools.
Roseanne was BUSY during the timing of Jenny's teen years in addition to having a high-profile romance and marriage with a drug addict. Should Jenny have stayed with Roseanne and Tom, went with her dad and his new wife (this is where I suspect she would have had the most "normal" life), gone to these series of "placements" like fat camps and wilderness schools, or went to a boarding school with stable parent-like figures? It's difficult to say, but in my opinion being full-time with Roseanne and Tom during those 8 years would have been worse than what she went through at the series of "schools."
I did have a big question: Where did her father go for her teen years and adulthood? He seemed very stable in her early childhood, and then he got into a new relationship after the divorce and...disappeared?
Jenny is still very close with Roseanne (who likely funds a lot in her life, including employing her husband for a while), so there's not a lot of finger pointing toward Roseanne. And then the racist tweeting part is very much glossed over. Hey, I can see why she wouldn't want to stop the money train.
And here ultimately is why I gave it a lower star rating (in addition to dismissing her father pretty early in her memoir): There was very little analysis, even retrospectively, of her life. Roseanne Barr's children need therapy. She did mention therapy a little here and there, but she doesn't seem to the point where she has truly processed her life before she was 25. Given that she's in her late 40s, I expected more in that realm. So I was disappointed overall, and I thought many points in the memoir were messy/chaotic in their recounting.