“Maybe my expectations were too high. I had hoped to love this book, but the sparks just didn't burn that brightly for me. For someone who dishes it out as heavily as Kathy Griffin does, she came across in this memoir as amazingly thin-skinned and sometimes downright petty. She lambastes Steve Martin, for example, because she perceived him to be disinterested in her when they were fellow guests on Martin Short's short-lived talk show. But I watched the clip on YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EA7ENHbSD5E), and Martin (Steve, that is) seemed sufficiently engaged in her stories, and even posed a few questions to her himself. Kathy complains bitterly when fellow celebrities don't "get" her, but she doesn't seem to have much leeway when it comes to "getting" others.
Chapters about her fairly unremarkable childhood gave the book a rather slow start, but the pace picked up considerably after the family moved to California and Kathy began her long climb up the showbiz ladder. Her simple, direct writing style is peppered with blunt, funny observations about herself and the Hollywood scene. One chapter is composed entirely of e-mail messages between her and Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, whom she briefly dated. Those e-mails reveal him to be a sweet, vulnerable nerd and her to be a funny, teasing friend ... sort of like a loud-mouthed little sister, the role she played in her real family.
And speaking of her real family, Kathy's stories about her parents -- especially her close relationship with her father -- revealed a sweet, tender, endearing side of her personality. A photo of her and her father on the beach and her description of him in the acknowledgements brought a tear to my eye.
Although I didn't love the book, I liked it well enough to read it in two sittings, and I was kind of bummed when it ended. I found that I was enjoying Kathy's company so much that I even read the index, which includes biting comments, too. Diehard fans will probably want to own this book. Everyone else should just borrow it from them.”
