Book Review: Let’s Pretend This Never Happened By Jenny Lawson

I guess if Carla won’t start a book club, I will have to start her book club for her, because this is another book that I bought and enjoyed after she mentioned enjoying it herself.

Let’s Pretend This Never Happened by Jenny Lawson

The author, Jenny Lawson, is a blogger (or should I say, she is The Bloggess?), but this book is not about blogging or life as a blogger. As described on Amazon:

Jenny Lawson realized that the most mortifying moments of our lives—the ones we’d like to pretend never happened—are in fact the ones that define us. In Let’s Pretend This Never Happened, Lawson takes readers on a hilarious journey recalling her bizarre upbringing in rural Texas, her devastatingly awkward high school years, and her relationship with her long-suffering husband, Victor. Chapters include: “Stanley the Magical, Talking Squirrel”; “A Series of Angry Post-It Notes to My Husband”; “My Vagina Is Fine. Thanks for Asking”; “And Then I Snuck a Dead Cuban Alligator on an Airplane.” Pictures with captions (no one would believe these things without proof) accompany the text.

Despite this description, it is important to note the subtitle:

(A Mostly True Memoir)

Or does that matter? I’ve seen several book reviews wondering just how much of the book is “true” and if the subtitle/disclaimer should shield the book from those types of questions, but I honestly don’t care. (I also enjoyed James Frey’s A Million Little Pieces and did not get wrapped up in the “controversy” about the veracity of that “memoir” either.)

I am adding Let’s Pretend This Never Happened to my short list of books that truly make me laugh out loud–so far the only other book on that list is Tina Fey’s Bossypants. Some of the stories in this book are more “inappropriate” than Bossypants, so I’m a bit hesitant to recommend it to all of my friends, but I’m pretty sure that they all would enjoy it, even if we wouldn’t laugh over the vagina chapter until we’d finished off at least one bottle of wine together.

What are you reading now?

Do you mind if a “memoir” is not 100% true?

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9 Responses to Book Review: Let’s Pretend This Never Happened By Jenny Lawson

  1. Miz says:

    I
    flipping
    adore
    ye 🙂

  2. I just ordered this book based on everything I've heard, but especially based on your review 🙂

    As for memoirs, I've come to believe that no memoir can be 100% "true." Viewed through the lens of time and space and personality, past events, even those that we experienced, can never be portrayed with 100% objectivity.

  3. M. J. Berman says:

    Do you mind if a “memoir” is not 100% true?

    yes. if it isn't true, then its fiction. so call it by its true name, "fiction"

  4. I loved this book, super funny 🙂

  5. steena says:

    I read two-thirds of a Million Little Pieces & got sick of the way he was writing. I do want to know how it ended though, and I keep meaning to just flip to the last chapter.
    I'll add this book to my list oo!
    Right now I'm reading A Dog's Purpose — IT IS SOOOO G O O D !! Really, really, reeeaaally good, and I double dog dare you to read it, you will smile through it, I promise.

  6. I agree with M.J. A 'mostly true' memoir is fiction. However, I'd still probably read it, especially after your review. Are you on Good Reads? I know, another annoying social media platform to keep track of, but it's really good for book ideas. I can never remember book recommendations, so I use that. I'm reading a John Grisham book right now… it's a little formulaic, so I'm not even remembering the name, but it's entertaining.

  7. Pingback: Book Reviews: Hyperbole And A Half by Allie Brosh - Running With Perseverance

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