wjacksonata 's review for:

Ten Steps to Nanette: A Memoir Situation by Hannah Gadsby

5.0

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I am one of the eight squillion people who watched Nanette when it went viral in 2018 (which, as something pre-pandemic, feels like it was decades ago). I had never heard of Gadsby until that point, but quickly became an ardent fan. I listened to most of this audiobook on a long drive, and unsurprisingly, Gadsby was great company. The first half of the book felt like a more traditional memoir - lots of content from her childhood, adolescence, and early adulthood. The second half got more into her life as a comedian, and how she navigated that as someone neurodiverse and LGBTQ+. One thing I found particularly fascinating was her intricate dissection of how comedy works, and how she jujitsu-ed comedy methods to ensure her content had the impact she wanted. As someone in one of my social media groups articulately said, the book is "elegantly written, devastatingly funny, heartbreakingly sad and courageously honest."