So I recently did a book haul and here is the first of the reviews for it. It's that simple really.
First Impressions:
I'm in love. With Lena, with the stories, with this book. It sounds a bit lame and arty-farty, but this book really gets me and all other 20-something women (I hope, maybe it is just me). Granted, some of the clothing choices that Dunham describes are quite my thing, nor would I go for canary-yellow hair. However, the ideas behind the evidence are bang on. It's reminding me a lot of How to be a Woman by Catlin Moran, which I expected. Yet it still manages to be different. Of course, it's in an American context, but I don't think that makes a difference. I think being predominantly first person and not being quite so didactic when directly addressing the reader (which I enjoyed in Moran's writing, don't get me confused for a critic) makes it a little more relatable.
This could be because so far it has been mostly just college memoirs that I can relate to because the Lena that she's talking about is the same age as me. However, I think that girls and women of any age (though maybe not too young) should pick this up. I even instagrammed about it. I mean, woah.
Synopsis:
I realise that those first impressions don't really explain all that much about the book and therefore are a little bit useless, but really fun to write.
Dunham's work doesn't really have a synopsis per se, but is a collection of chapters based around some the topics that women (with the extensive case study of just me) think about most. It's a coming of age story as well taken from her own experiences and follows a style similar to a self-help book. However, I don't consider it as tragic to read than your average 'how to make it' book. It's an honest depiction of how girls become women and what we need to understand how we identify ourselves as women. Mostly the conclusion I have received is to know what your comfortable with, set that boundary and don't let people push you around if that's the line you won't cross.
In short, it's an empowering collection of lessons that I think every woman should know about just to escape the inevitable feeling of loneliness that sometimes occurs.
Actual Impressions:
I have now finished the book and enjoyed it immensely- it was a bit weird at times, but I think that was due to getting used to Dunham's 'voice' throughout the book and also the fact that I read it until 1am most nights, which resulted in me falling asleep with the book in my bed. Scandalous I know.
In a lot of ways, the stories make you wish that as a 20-something, you were, or are half as cool as Lena Dunham was, but at the same time, really, really glad you weren't/aren't her. The stories are great, because they seem as honest as stories can get, plus make me feel a little less concerned about being me.
All in all, it was a fun and slightly mental read- if you have the attention span of a caffeinated squirrel, then at least give the first 5 chapters a go and you won't regret it.
