Miss Fortune

January 18, 2016
In her second collection of autobiographical stories, actress Weedman (A Woman Trapped in a Woman’s Body) spins dark material into cathartic comedy and genuine insight on love and loss. Effortlessly tossing off one-liners, she compares a threesome to “doing theater in the round,” and at the thought of not drinking alcohol for four days she worries,“What if I had seizures—or worse... feelings.” She writes frequently of having been adopted, poking fun at the name on her birth certificate, calling herself “Tammy ‘Get off me, Daddy, you’re crushing my smokes’ Lisa.” Her own pregnancy and anxiety about motherhood segues into the story of meeting her birth mother at age 19. The most moving essay focuses on Weedman’s separation from her second husband. She recounts the end of the relationship evocatively, reflected through the bizarre cast of characters who occupy her apartment complex and consistently distract her (and the reader) from accepting the inevitable. The final essay finds Weedman adrift in Portland coping with the “Hollywood cliché” of her ex-husband’s new relationship with their former babysitter. Weedman’s charm and self-deprecating humor easily draw the reader in, and her willingness to tangle with hard truths make this a deeply affecting account of salvaging a life from wreckage.

March 1, 2016
The TV and stage actress turns the messes of her life into fodder for this winning essay collection.Weedman (A Woman Trapped in a Woman's Body: (Tales from a Life of Cringe), 2007) describes her theatrical career as "walking around traumatized every five minutes and making a two-hour show about it." Throughout her latest book, she remains ruthlessly self-deprecating--"maybe I was the hero [of her stories], but I was so opposed to coming off as the hero that I exaggerated myself into an abusive idiot for laughs"--and consistently funny. She tells how she once imprudently moved into "a quaint little month-to-month studio that seemed artsy because it had a shared bathroom 'like an artists' commune, ' but the place turned out to be an SRO that house[d] mostly male ex-convicts." Of her triumphant high school years, she breezily writes, "I was just a teen with a weight problem who loved a man with chiseled cheekbones and a caustic wit. A simple midwestern gal who loved her gay choir teacher." Other accounts--about miserable boyfriends and her meetings with her glib and caustic birth mother--elicit cringes, but they are simply landmarks that lead to the heart of the book. Weedman tones down the humor when she discusses her attempts at a lifestyle that has eluded her. She keenly feels like "a middle-aged white lady from L.A."--no more so than when a young bartender dryly commented on how she looked "very dolled up" for what she intended to be an exciting night on the town in a new city. The author projects a mood of low-key resignation, reflecting on the spectrum of adulthood, from the 20s to the 40s, and she sneakily plants seeds of melancholy and wisdom amid the laughs. An intelligent, hilarious, and bittersweet collection.

COPYRIGHT(2016) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

March 1, 2016

In this collection of essays, Weedman shares humorous stories to emphasize what is pointed out in the title--that she is not okay. The author details snapshots of her life such as calling her mothers (adoptive and biological) for help with her newborn son, filming HBO sex scenes while pregnant, performing in high school swing choir, and unknowingly getting a gang tattoo--in that order. A lot of information fills these pages of nonlinear narrative--each essay highlights a different time, and several have a train-of-thought feel. One pieces jostles between Weedman watching her son play and her emailing a man who may or may not have murdered nine people. VERDICT While entertaining, mostly owing to Weedman's self-deprecating humor, the essays are presented via a time line, or lack thereof, that has the potential to leave readers confused. This book may not quite be on par with those of other comedic female writers, but fans of Lena Dunham's Not That Kind of Girl or Amy Poehler's Yes Please may be drawn to it.--Natalie Browning, J. Sargeant Reynolds Community Coll. Lib., Richmond, VA

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.