Not That Kind of Girl by Lena Dunham
This was a Christmas present from my 20 year old daughter
who absolutely loved it. I was
thus very well disposed to Lena Dunham and laughed, laughed quite a lot in fact
when reading my way through this collection of essays dealing with the themes
of Love & Sex, Body, Friendship, Work and Big Picture, but I didn’t have
that immediate sense of connection that I have say when I read Nora Ephron
where I go “I want you as my friend, you are speaking directly to me, so in
fact we are friends already.”
I think part of the lack of connect as it were is that Lena
Dunham is 28 and actually the person I felt the most empathy with, and
curiosity about, was her mother – maybe it’s because I am that stage of dealing
with challenging teenagers time of life – though not possibly as challenging as
Lena sounds as if she might have been and I mean challenging in the nicest
possible, intelligent, pushing the boundaries, imaginative, but frankly exhausting
kind of way.
I finished the book with great respect for the way in which
Lena Dunham is happy to share any experience that strikes her as worthy – aside
from making me laugh some bits made me squirm, but that’s where the bravery of
revelation comes in I guess- most of us sweep those kind of things under our
mental carpets – she puts it centre stage and whips its clothes off, as a
reader I was shouting ‘Bravo’ whilst covering my eyes with my hands and peeping
out.
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