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A review by bethreadsandnaps
This Will Be Funny Later by Jenny Pentland, Jenny Pentland
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.