Official Book Club Selection is a memoir according To Kathy Griffin; what a great title. This is a hard one to recommend as people either love her and her abrasive comedy, or hate her because of her abrasive comedy. She says whatever the wants - sometimes winning an Emmy, sometimes attracting derision. If there is a head in the room, she'll hold it up for you.
This isn't a light, 'as told to' celebrity autobiography. At 359 pages she goes in depth looking back at her start in stand-up, along with the top names in TV and comedy like Janeane Garofalo, Jerry Seinfeld, David Spade, Molly Shannon, Margaret Cho...if you know Kathy from her show My Life on the D-List you know that if there is a celebrity in the vicinity, their name is included here. She's also so candid about her many plastic surgery successes and failures that she includes the surgical photos. She details her biggest mainstream success on the TV series Suddenly Susan where she played the second lead - why she didn't go on to have her own show (almost happened) may be down to her caustic stand-up. There is a hint of desperation, and she is very open about her desire to make it but feeling second best. It's an overt need to blurt out the most offensive things under the guise of a joke - brutal humour that is sometimes hilarious, sometime bombs. These days I feel like she sabotages herself, and then tops it, not backing down, but this a memoir of the early days of touring, comedy shows, TV success, and celebrity - a view from the fringe.
I thought this was hilarious. She has no filter, and like Joan Rivers can joke about things we all think but wouldn't say. She is my kind of humour, but she needs to relax. If you are a fan, this is a great look back at the early days, but there are lots of people who won't want to read this. Any memoir where she is giving you the finger on the back cover, you know what you are going to get.
1934 / Hardcover / 293 pages
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