sams84 's review for:

Ten Steps to Nanette: A Memoir Situation by Hannah Gadsby

5.0

---

This is a open and honest accounting of how Gadsby came to write Nanette, starting with the major ups and downs of her childhood, through adolescence and into adulthood. Gadsby does write in a non-normative way but if you're familiar with her shows and have a vague appreciation of how her mind works, this shouldn't be a surprise. And once you get used to it, it begins to flow and gives an additional insight into her thinking behind the show and her various reactions to events and traumas in her life. Speaking of which, this book is one hell of a trigger even if you're lucky enough to not have major trauma in your life, but for those who don't have that privilege (and it is a privilege), I suspect this book can provide a certain catharsis (with the right support of course). Having finished this, I feel that I need to watch Nanette again to appreciate it on a whole new level, especially knowing how hard it was for Gadsby to bring together and what it cost to send out into the world.