Wow, No Thank You, by Samantha Irby
A semi-finalist in the humor category, I expected Wow, No Thank You to be the hearty belly laugh and inducer of guffaw-turned-sobbing release I needed during a stressful week. Although funny indeed, it didn’t quite hit the mark to keep me laughing ad nauseum. It did elicit quite a few chuckles, though!
Throughout a series of essays, Samantha Irby takes the reader on a humorous journey through her life lens—sometimes embarrassingly relatable, sometimes educationally entertaining and sometimes random.
I will say this: You never knew what you were going to read next!
I applaud the author for her raw vulnerability and self-exposure to bring awareness of important issues in a light-hearted way. As a character, I had great respect and admiration for her pushing the bar to normalize things we tend to “shush,” so her honesty, candidness and authenticity resonated deeply with me. I found that to be refreshing to read—straight up honesty and a no-holds-barred account of REAL life. Nothing sugar coated here!
From her bouts with Crohn’s Disease and the havoc in wreaks at the most inopportune times, to her housing debacles, to her self-deprecating assessment of herself as a wife and friend, I’m pretty sure we can all see a little bit of Samantha Irby in ourselves if we are honest enough to admit it.
Although not typically my kind of humor, I certainly could see where others would enjoy the downright hilarity intended.
To hear more about my thoughts on how I connected to Samantha’s essays, check out my video book review, Find Yourself in a Character:
To learn more about this week’s author, Samantha Irby, you can find her here: http://www.samanthairby.com/