The memoir-ish panoply of hysterical anecdotes and musings (or as the NYT book review put it, "spiky blend of humor, introspection, critical thinking and Nora Ephron-isms for a new generation. ") was borrowed from a good friend and based on her recommendation. In fact, I knew it would be funny because said friend shares some of my issues with Ms. Fey's general schtick (issues elucidated by this reviewer) and still really enjoyed the book.
AND it was quite funny.
Some choice representative excerpts;
Typical Fey humor:
If you had told me when I was a kid that I would grow up to sit through the annual NBC Employee Sexual Harassment Seminar fourteen times, I would have said, "What's 'sexual harassment'?" because Clarence Thomas didn't invent that until the early nineties."
Self-deprecating humor (it does start to grate after a while):
"Carlock and I can't believe we used to complain about the hours at SNL, which now seem like a cakewalk. Especially for me, because that's all I did my first two years at SNL: walk around and look for cake"
Relaying her experience w. the travails of girl teendom:
“I knew from commercials that one’s menstrual period was a blue liquid you poured like laundry detergent onto maxi pads to test their absorbency,” she writes.
Acknowledgment of her newly found fame:
Anyone who knows me will tell you that I am all about money. I mean, just look how well my line of zodiac-inspired toe rings and homeopathic children’s medications are selling on Home Shopping Network.
A lot bout her baby:
I had to get back to work. NBC has me under contract. The baby and I only have a verbal agreement.
and righteous not so veiled anger (F you C-Hitchens, I'm still pissed about your 2007 Women Aren't Funny vanity fair article):
“I don’t like Chinese food, but that doesn’t mean I go around making arguments about how Chinese food doesn’t exist. Women ARE funny, and the fact that you don’t get the humor doesn’t make them any less humorous.”
Unsurprisingly - some Palin/Republican zingers (this is the woman who wrote the line, "I believe marriage is meant to be a sacred institution between two unwilling teenagers." :
Politics and prostitution have to be the only jobs where inexperience is considered a virtue. In what other profession would you brag about not knowing stuff? “I’m not one of those fancy Harvard heart surgeons. I’m just an unlicensed plumber with a dream and I’d like to cut your chest open.” The crowd cheers.
A few months after our friendly chat about kids (and my condescending remarks about New York), Mrs. Palin told conservative filmmaker John Ziegler that Katie Couric and I had exploited and profited by her family. But I know better than to respond to attacks in the media. Although if I were to respond, I would probably just say, “Nice reality show.”
And finally something I can identify with:
Why could I never remember? That feeling of “I’m pretty sure this next step is wrong, but I’m just gonna do it anyway” is part of the same set of instincts that makes me such a great cook.
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