quinuaconqueso 's review for:

My Friend Anna by Rachel DeLoache Williams

1.5

informative reflective fast-paced

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This book is incredibly boring, and I only found value in it because of the salacious details. But when we distill into its essence, there is just simply nothing. Kind of like what all this ordeal with Anna Delvey is: there is no substance, there is nothing interesting. I initially thought there would be, after watching Inventing Anna, but then you turn to the real characters and find only whiny superficial people, too preoccupied with their image and self-importance. I chuck it now to the amazing Julia Gardner: she is such a good actress that somehow managed to turn someone as inconsequential and silly like the real Anna Delvey into someone who might actually have something to say. But she truly is not that. She is some criminal, as plain and boring and bland as they come. And, apart from the real hurt of being scammed and maybe betrayed by a loved one in this way, this book shows that this is a First-World drama. People crying over money they owe after spending a week in one of the most expensive hotels in the world. How disconnected must you be from the reality around you? To whine about this while in Morocco, where, according to the author’s own account, all cars are checked for bombs before entering. Millions of people live that reality and even harsher ones every day, and the author didn’t even touch on any of it. This entire book reads like an endless humble-brag. Whatever defect she writes about herself is easily twisted into a somehow positive trait. She is too trusting, too kind, too mellow, too considerate, too, too, too. Basically as self-centered as the criminal herself. No, sorry, no matter how many ways it is twisted, none of this is relatable to the majority of the world. I’m with the fictional Spodek here: everyone should be so lucky if this were the most trauma ever lived. I would have respected her more if she had actually admitted openly that this story is too crazy not to try to make a profit out of it. What are the odds of being scammed like this? Because otherwise there is nothing interesting there. But the article or the book would have been enough: both are just milking it too much and basically showing that there is not enough source material to keep exploiting. What a colossal waste of time. At least it did put me solidly above my reading goal this year, so that’s something.