Book 3.8: Bossypants

Author: Tina Fey
Dates read: September 7, 2011 - September 12, 2011 (6 days)
Pages: 275
Genre: Non-fiction, memoir, humor

This book was a quick read that I would’ve gotten through much quicker if I wasn’t constantly stopping to tell a friend about whatever hilarious thing I had just read in this book. I picked it up because I’ve always liked Tina Fey’s sense of humor and figured it’d be interesting to hear her perspective about her life and career.

When I started reading this, I was expecting a memoir tinged with humor. What this book actually turned out to be was more of a 50/50 mix of the two, almost like reading all of a comedian’s stand-up routines if their jokes were predominantly autobiographical. Yes, it has passages that are more traditionally memoir-ish portions of Fey’s life, like her recollections of a particular post-collegiate job, her interview for SNL, and her ill-fated honeymoon. But it also has chapters that are straight-up comedy, like her thoughts on photo shoots, faux beauty secrets, and her responses to several specific negative opinions about her written by trolls on various websites (including one that refers to her as a troll and to whom she has the best reply ever).

Finding I was wrong in my expectation about this book was both bad and good. I was definitely bummed out when I realized that the comprehensive career chronicle I’d anticipated wouldn’t be included (though many major steps are touched on). But I was also laughing more than I expected to, which is always nice. What it essentially boils down to is being more anecdotal than I’d imagined, hence the constant relaying to friends snippets that I’d just read. I’d still be interested to read a more in depth examination of Fey’s life if she ever decided to write a memoir of the kind I’d originally imagined this would be, but I certainly wasn’t disappointed with what I got from this book in the end.