Wendy SperoCritiques

The stories of Spero growing up in Manhattan, her journeys through her first jobs, her neuroses, her mother's neuroses, and all the rest are all very nice and not poorly written. And yet, despite all that, they didn't really make me laugh or think or anything at all. Although Spero and I are about the same age, I didn't feel like I related to her or her problems or worries at all -- there just wasn't any connection there.

[full review here: http://spacebeer.blogspot.com/2010/01/microthrills-by-wendy-spero-2006.html ]

A friend who knows how much I love David Sedaris sent me this book and said, "I think you'll like it." And I did. I didn't laugh out loud like I do at Sedaris's writing, but it was funny. Spero writes a lot about her relationship with her mother and about her OCD. I don't know why OCD is funny. I mean, I guess just in and of itself, it isn't. It's crippling, really. But when Spero writes about it, it is funny. She's also got a pretty funny essay about learning to drive, and a sweet one about being a completely incompetent office administrator.

Would I recommend this book? If you're a fan of authors like David Sedaris, Sarah Vowell, David Rakoff, and the like, yeah, I would. It's not the best book I've read all year, but it was a fun read.

Really quirky memoir by a comedienne. One thing I am certain: the audio experience, read by the author, is much more intense than print (though I did not "read" the book myself).