Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

This book was a disappointment. I waited anxiously to read it, being a woman in my 20s as well and a fan of Girls. I am well aware that Dunham is not the same person as her character, Hannah. What I did not know is that she is actually worse. I hesitate to criticize this book because I agree completely with Dunham that female memoirs are so important and must be published. However, I feel that she has written a piece that could very well turn many men and women off of reading the genre entirely. The chapter where she lists food in particular, is absolutely mundane. She is both aware of her surroundings and yet completely unaware in a way that is so confusing. Sometimes her prose is beautifully observant, but it often it feels very contrived--as if she is trying as hard as she possibly can to pack as much kitschy character into each sentence. A roommate who moved out to explore "farm to fork cooking and lesbianism" is one of the many examples of this. The book is easily readable once you realize how Dunham is structuring her storytelling (seemingly unrelated paragraphs do eventually come together if you hang in there). But rather than being funny, her self-absorption and self-analysis become exhausting, like the friend that you have coffee with who never shuts up long enough so you can tell her how your day was. I balk at anyone who would say that this is the voice of the millennial generation. This is one view, which should be valued for what it is, but it is certainly not representative of the whole.