Girl with a Lower Back Tattoo by Amy Schumer fulfilled the Book Recommended by a Celebrity I admire. I did some research for the category and discovered that J. K. Rowling recommended the book. Talk about a celebrity I admire…to write stories like that woman…sigh. So I grabbed the audio read by Ms. Schumer and dug in.
The book was autobiographical, telling Ms. Schumer’s rise to stardom. The book left me with mixed emotions regarding the tales she told. Ms. Schumer didn’t seem to hold back in telling the good and the bad. And the bad was terrible, the poor woman. But it’s Amy Schumer and she’s her own woman. And from hearing her story, I can see why she is the way she is.
Amy Schumer is not apologetic for being a mess—loud, unladylike, and herself through and through and I love it. Her comedy is edgy and smart, but it felt like the book was written on the heels of Tina Fey and Amy Poehler. I loved Bossypants and Yes, Please. Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo seemed a more blah version of these books. The same strong message about “being yourself” seemed washed out. Not that Ms. Schumer’s story wasn’t compelling. It was, but it bordered on being a repeat of the other two.
The book probably could’ve benefitted from another format, sequence, or something to differentiate it from the other two books. The woman has lived a full life at only thirty-five (when she wrote the book), but perhaps if she had waited to write such a book, she’d have more material. (Yes, the other women were only five years older when they wrote theirs. But Amy has a baby now. There’s some great material.)
I can see why J. K. Rowling would recommend the book. It was a great mixture of serious, funny, and enlightening. I just wish there was a little more.
I give Girl with a Lower Back Tattoo Four Star Tats because she has a lower back tattoo, and she owns it.