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Adult Audiobook Review: Let's Pretend This Never Happened (A Mostly True Memoir) by Jenny Lawson

5/30/2012

11 Comments

 
Lets Pretend This Never Happened audiobook cover
Let's Pretend This Never Happened (A Mostly True Memoir)
Author: Jenny Lawson
Publication Date: 4/17/12
Publisher: Penguin Audio
[Goodreads | Amazon | Audible]


Blurb (GR): When Jenny Lawson was little, all she ever wanted was to fit in. That dream was cut short by her fantastically unbalanced father (a professional taxidermist who created dead-animal hand puppets) and a childhood of wearing winter shoes made out of used bread sacks. It did, however, open up an opportunity for Lawson to find the humor in the strange shame spiral that is her life, and we are all the better for it.
Lawson's long-suffering husband and sweet daughter are the perfect comedic foils to her absurdities, and help her to uncover the surprising discovery that the most terribly human moments-the ones we want to pretend never happened-are the very same moments that make us the people we are today.

Let's Pretend This Never Happened is a poignantly disturbing, yet darkly hysterical tome for every intellectual misfit who thought they were the only ones to think the things that Lawson dares to say out loud. Like laughing at a funeral, this book is both irreverent and impossible to hold back once you get started


Review:

Let's Pretend This Never Happened (A Mostly True Memoir) is a collection of stories from the life of Jenny Lawson, who is also known as The Bloggess on her blog of the same name. I was somewhat familiar with Lawson from reading bits of her often irreverent blog posts and laughing my ass off. She talks about a whole range of topics from childbirth all the way to squirrel puppets. Anyone who knows me knows that I love a good story. I love telling them and I especially love hearing them. The more awkward or unbelievable the better. With the caveat that some of these stories are not about me, I tell random stories about puking on the Hoover Dam, making wax casts of vulvas, blacking out and waking up in the bed of a truck with no pants on, peeing in a sleeping bag, naming and caring for a bottle of mold, letting a homeless man sleep in the basement, and accosting people in a deviled egg costume. And you know what? People enjoy these stories. But you have to play to your audience, so a lot of the time I'm just sitting there, making small talk and shooting the breeze. This book is mostly a collection of the kinds of stories I love, but there are definitely moments, nay, entire chapters of more seriousness that reminded me that I was listening to a memoir and not an entirely humorous book.

Lawson's book was actually our book club pick of the month and it received varied reactions. One of the most interesting points that a friend of mine brought up was that the book rubbed her the wrong way because it perpetuated society's promotion of the "neurotic woman." She cited a lot of reality television participants and their over-the-top personalities and how our need for entertainment has created the idea that doing seemingly outrageous things is now commonplace and acceptable. I'm not sure I agree with her wholly, but I do know that it may not apply to Lawson, as she discusses in the book her multiple psychological and physical diagnoses and how they affect her everyday life. However, the book does definitely straddle the line of funny and... I'm having a hard time picking a word here. Listen, we all have our things. We all have our pain, our loves, our worries, dreams, hopes, past, nightmares, (insert whatever here). Everyone's life is their own and no one can actually experience someone else's every thought. But at the same time, we are all human and no one is totally unlike every other person alive. We have commonalities with other people, even in terms of thought processes, so it annoys me when people make it seem like they are so unlike everybody else. Unique snowflakes? No. But it must be hard to try to write stories in the funniest way possible without sounding like a try-hard. A few times Lawson fails at this but she overwhelmingly succeeded for this particular reader.

I am certain that many of Lawson's stories will stick with me for a long time and there are definitely some mental images that I wish I could erase from my mind. For example, she tells a story about turning around and walking straight inside a deer carcass by accident. Another about how her vagina felt after childbirth. And several dead animal stories. I'm not offended by most things, but I can see how this book would be too much for some people. However, Lawson addresses that in the very beginning of the book. You'll know after just a few pages whether or not you are on the same page as she is in terms of humor, and if you are, the book is consistently funny. You can check out her blog, her YouTube channel, or listen to a quick sound bite from NPR here to form your own opinion. (there is also an excerpt from the book on the NPR page)


As I listened to the audiobook, which Lawson narrates,  it was fun to hear her talk about the pictures in the book, but I did feel like I was missing out to an extent. Luckily for me (and you!), the official book trailer includes some of the pictures, including a raccoon in pajamas and an alligator on an airplane!
As a narrator, I thought she was engaging and she is a natural storyteller. The audiobook is absolutely conversational, in a way that I haven't experienced before but which I enjoyed. (Flash to Home Alone when Macauley Culkin talks about washing inside his belly button.) She occasionally diverged from the book for a moment or two, but I think it added to the experience because she was forced to describe the omitted pictures and elaborate on what we were missing in audiobook format. A huge bonus to listening to the book is the bonus story and bloopers which are included at the end. Lawson recounts her first job at a sno-cone shack during the sweltering Texas summer and that awkward moment when someone touches a body part to ice and it gets stuck. And no, it isn't something as funny as the tongue scene in A Christmas Story. I told a guy the punchline of that story and his eyebrows almost shot up off his forehead. Jenny Lawson jokes about how she saved tons of stories for book two and I have no idea if she was joking or not, but I really hope she wasn't. I'd read that. I'd read it in a second. (or listen to it, as it were.)
4/5 stars
  
I was lucky enough to win a copy of the audiobook from Lucy at The Reading Date, so I figure I should continue the good karma and pass it on to another person who can listen to and laugh. So if you live in the US and want to enter to win, just fill out this form. (CONTEST CLOSED, WINNER FORTHCOMING)
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11 Comments
Catie (The Readventurer) link
5/30/2012 10:22:45 am

I am even more intrigued by this recommendation, Flannery. Also intriguing me right now - trying to figure out which of the stories that you listed above are about you. I normally don't read memoirs but I do love some humor (like David Sedaris). Plus, I'm a mom and I have to admit that I'm a complete sucker for any gory/hilarious birth story. So there's that. Great review today!

Reply
Flannery (The Readventurer) link
5/31/2012 08:56:23 am

I really want you to listen to this. She sings the titles of the chapters, which gets old, but they are usually pretty funny titles. When it is tons of anecdotal stories, of course some will be amazing and some will be letdowns but so much more of this is hilarious.

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Lucy link
5/30/2012 10:53:01 am

Awesome review, Flannery. The deer carcass story is one I wish I could erase from my memory as well. And somehow I don't doubt Lawson has enough stories to fill a book two!

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Flannery (The Readventurer) link
5/31/2012 08:59:46 am

I hope she *does* write another book. She is so funny when she's telling her stories. Thank you, thank you for sending me your copy. I can't wait to send it on to a new victim. Oops, I mean "reader."

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Tatiana (The Readventurer) link
5/31/2012 04:11:07 am

I haven't read this particular book, but I can see where your friend is coming from. It irks me as well to read books about neurotic women that constantly humiliate themselves. This is why I remember dropping my first Laurie Notaro book and also why I stopped reading chick lit of the funny variety. Too often women there are portrayed as blithering, incompetent idiots.

But, of course, I am not familiar with the Blogess, so her memoir might be of a completely different variety.

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Flannery (The Readventurer) link
5/31/2012 09:06:33 am

We talked about a lot of different parts of the book but I found most of the things she does entertaining rather than annoying. Memoirs are hard to criticize because it is someone's actual personality, marriage, etc.

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starryeyedjen link
5/31/2012 04:36:37 am

I don't read too many memoirs, but I read an excerpt of this one and couldn't NOT pick it up. Haven't gotten to it yet, but your review made me that much more anxious to give it a go. I imagine the audio would be pretty hilarious...wish I'd thought of that before I bought the physical book. Ah, such is life.

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Flannery (The Readventurer) link
5/31/2012 09:16:31 am

It's definitely hilarious. I bet the physical book is pretty awesome too, though. Especially with the pictures!

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Maja
5/31/2012 05:00:43 pm

Hah, unlike Catie, I've had enough of both childbirth and childbirth-related stories, but the rest sounds really interesting.
I've been sitting here for the last ten minutes, trying to remember the last time I read memoires, but I can't. With books like this one, it's difficult to predict if they'll work for you or not, but I defintiely want to try. I feel like reading something different.

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Alyssa @ Books Take You Places link
6/1/2012 05:33:33 am

I am so excited for this book! I have it on hold at work but I have been debating between the print or audio version. I usually stick to the physical book because I seem to have some problem where I only love audio books if they are read by Jim Dale...

Reply
Allana Lake
6/2/2012 12:09:42 pm

This book reminded me a lot of "The Imperfect Enjoyment" by Dewan Gibson, though a bit less funny. Still it's definitely worth a Kindle download.

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