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ebook_em's review against another edition
Just wasn’t feeling it. The first two essays/stories felt pointless.
mary412's review
4.0
Maeve's appearances on This American Life prompted me to listen to her essays about her life in America. I'm sure it would be a fun read, but the voice adds such charm.
audjmo91's review against another edition
3.0
I really enjoy Maeve Higgins' comedy but haven't listened to her podcast, and I imagine had I been a listener I may have been better prepared for the mixed tone of this essay collection. Some of the essays are straight-up hilarious, some are deeply thoughtful, and some fall in-between. Overall, an enjoyable read, but I perhaps would have shuffled the order a bit so it felt more balanced vs. a tonal back and forth.
siriface's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
funny
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
3.5
snowbenton's review
2.0
Higgins has delivered less of a memoir and more of a desperate plea to be liked. Her jokes are all self-deprecating, her stories framed to make her appear helpless and likable, and her grand sweeping monologues on Irish history and the state of the world are wildly out of place in her otherwise ramshackle memoir and seem to exist only to make her appear knowledgeable (if I'm being charitable) or fill space because her life isn't that interesting (if I'm not). I used to really enjoy Higgins on the StarTalk podcast, but I'm not even sure who I could recommend this for.
siria's review against another edition
4.0
These fifteen essays from Irish-born, New York-based comedian Maeve Higgins explore immigration, friendship, family, and belonging. Gently humourous rather than laugh-out-loud funny, Higgins is at her strongest when tackling the absurdities of trying to code-shift between cultures as an emigrant who still travels home (and oh, she's so right about Americans and small talk). Very readable in the "nice chat with a friend from back home" mode.