“My alarm goes off at 5:50 a.m. First thing I do is check to make sure I'm not dead. If I am, in fact, still alive, I usually sob uncontrollably until there's nothing left in my tear ducts but salt dust, then grope blindly through my apartment to the bathroom, where I say a little prayer for a hole to open beneath my building and swallow us all.”
Samantha Irby's second non-fiction book We are Never Meeting in Real Life, details her daily struggle with chronic physical illnesses, anxiety and depression, and gives readers a deep dive look into cringe-worthy dating and relationship experiences that many a reader can relate to.
Samantha Irby is of course funny-- you can see that for yourself by visiting her blog Bitches Gotta Eat -- but her particular type of humor is so unique. I haven't read a humorous book where the author's self deprecating humor works to actively unite the reader to herself, using her own embarrassing moments to make us feel less alone in our own embarrassments... I found so much of myself in the things that she discussed and laughed off, and the things I couldn't relate to, only made me love her more.
I read this book in a series of nights before I fell asleep. My husband was next to me reading some apocalyptic novel about zombies, or some shit. Between the two of us, I was for sure having the most fun. He spent a lot of the time he could have spent reading, lowering his book to his nose, and glaring at me over the tops of his pages like a hostile librarian while I shook, gasped for air, and cried real laughter tears. Humor books normally get a "that's funny" chuckle from me, but the ones that make me cry have a special place in my heart (here's lookin
g at you Hyperbole and a Half, Shit, Actually, Such a Pretty Fat, and Hypocrite in a Pouffy White Dress.)
I really need more laughter in my life. Anytime I can violently shake from laughter while reading, is a soul cleansing experience from me. I think my 2021 Extra Curricular reading challenge will be to read one book in the humor genre a month. Lord knows I need it!!!
4/5 Stars
A-sort-of-content-warning: While I don't even know if this bares mentioning, the humor in Irby's novel often involves over detailed descriptions of bodily functions, awkward sexual encounters, and her difficult childhood. I have friends who have read her writing and have found it to be too graphic. I didn't feel it was too graphic, but you might!
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