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4.04 AVERAGE
4.04 AVERAGE
Read for the 2017 Reading Challenge prompt A Book about an Interesting Woman. Courageous cancer fight; tough story. I had to take a lot of YouTube breaks to watch her old skits on SNL.
emotional
funny
informative
emotional
inspiring
medium-paced
It's difficult to review a memoir of someone battling with cancer, as Gilda's journey is uniquely her own as is her voice. That being said, this book falls squarely in the three stars range. I appreciate Gilda's willingness to show herself in all lights, although her constant battling against her own doctors made it difficult as a reader.
Knowing that Gilda died shortly after (before?) the publication of the book adds a particular poignancy to it. We know the ending, and know how quickly it was coming. We know in advance that no matter how good or bad the odds, Gilda is not going to win this fight, and that makes her hope and her despair equally painful.
I'm glad I read it, but I don't think I'll be going back to it.
Knowing that Gilda died shortly after (before?) the publication of the book adds a particular poignancy to it. We know the ending, and know how quickly it was coming. We know in advance that no matter how good or bad the odds, Gilda is not going to win this fight, and that makes her hope and her despair equally painful.
I'm glad I read it, but I don't think I'll be going back to it.
Gilda is the best. She is so, so funny, but it never feels like she's trying to tell you a joke (which is how I felt reading, say, Bossypants.) She just has the best, most natural, funniest way of telling stories, even really horrible ones about cancer and sickness. It was hard reading this knowing she was going to die of the cancer that she, at that point, had survived, and that definitely made it a sadder book than it probably was when it came out. But it's still delightfully funny, and I also think it gave me really good insight into what it's like to have cancer. Wonderful book.
I like Gilda Radner a lot. It is not a bad memoir, its just I wanted to know more about her, her life, her career, SNL, etc. This is almost solely about her relationship with Gene Wilder and her cancer. Its not un-interesting, but I didn't want to read about cancer. She had some fabulous insights on life and is a good writer. One part in particular I really loved:
"I wanted a perfect ending. Now I've learned, the hard way, that some poems don't rhyme, and some stories don't have a clear beginning, middle, and end. Life is about not knowing, having to change, taking the moment and making the best of it, without knowing what's going to happen next.
Delicious Ambiguity."
"I wanted a perfect ending. Now I've learned, the hard way, that some poems don't rhyme, and some stories don't have a clear beginning, middle, and end. Life is about not knowing, having to change, taking the moment and making the best of it, without knowing what's going to happen next.
Delicious Ambiguity."
Gilda writes about a season of her life fighting cancer. It is full of the ups and downs, the hope and the despair, of the cancer journey. I imagine those dealing with terminal sickness will relate, especially with that feeling of being sick of being sick. My heart also broke for what Gene Wilder went through, trying to be a good spouse and there being times where Gilda was not persuadable to follow the doctors plan.
This book is not a comedy book and it is not about SNL or show business; this is a book about the cancer journey from a known personality who had the resources to treat cancer on her own preferences.
This book is not a comedy book and it is not about SNL or show business; this is a book about the cancer journey from a known personality who had the resources to treat cancer on her own preferences.
I finished reading "It's Always Something" by Gilda Radner, and my tears are falling in time with the rain outside. She had such an incredibly beautiful spirit. I have never wished so badly for someone I've not met to be alive. I miss her deeply. In an essay last semester, I wrote, "I found you so late and you left so early. What is it to miss those whom we’ve never met?" I love you, Gilda. ❤️