Bossypants: Book Review

A couple of years ago, I went to see Date Night.  I did not know what to expect. I've had mixed reactions to Steve Carell and while I was wild about Tina Fey's Sarah Palin on Saturday Night Live, I thought that the movie might be silly. Still  it was at my favorite movie theatre only a few minutes from the house.

I laughed so. Others do not share my enthusiasm for the film, but I loved it.

So, I bought Bossypants, a memoir, something like an autobiography up to now, by Tina Fey.  The book had been on the best seller lists for some time. The first few pages of the book are filled with praise from all sorts.

I don't think the book is so extra. There is an advertisement in the back for an audio version, and perhaps listening to it might have made it special. As a read, the book seems like several--mostly disjointed--episodes in her life which are advertised as hilariously written, but seemed to me like listening to a gum chewing person in the next booth at the diner relaying one not so interesting episode after another to acquaintances who are smiling politely but who appear to be in some discomfort.

There were three aspects of the book that I did like. The first is that throughout she points out how women are marginalized in various fields and held up to different standards than men.  Some good examples in several chapters that should make the point unless you desire to hold onto previously held beliefs.  The second was her recounting of the experience doing Sarah Palin on Saturday Night Live.   The third was what to me was a very funny section about her annual travels to her in laws. Somehow that tickled me in a way the other sections did not.

So, I don't really get the fanfare related to this book.  Not sorry I bought it and read it, but if you are a fan of SNL with Tina Fey and found Date Night funny, you might be disappointed expecting something similar.