Not That Kind of Girl

Navel gazing at its worst. After forcing myself through approximately 50 pages of this vapid “memoir,” I couldn't stomach anymore - even as a hate read. We get it, Lena. You're the smartest, funniest girl in the room and you don't give a damn what people think about your body or your love life.

The best part of the book (by far) was the illustration work at the start of each chapter.

I appreciate the notes of feminism and larger lessons learned that Dunham mentions, however, the majority of what was said honestly felt like mindless drivel. Just not my type of book, and I don't know who Lena Dunham is and don't have any connections to her, so this book just fell flat for me.

This book of essays is mostly about consent, body image, and complicated feelings towards sexuality. Dunham is really funny, wry, self-aware, and outrageous. She also is obsessed with and allergic to shame, and I love that about her.
Lena Dunham is really good at putting a voice to experiences people don't normally talk about. Like the shame of ending up in unhealthy relationships or nonconsensual situations in part because you were seeking something there, or being unable to name when something happened was wrong. The shame of deeply needing to be desired and important, shame of our interest in our bodies, and other people's. What makes her such a good artist is her relationship to artifice and self-revelation. Being an artist is an act of artifice, of curating aspects of your existence to be shared, and so is being a person. There is something so beautiful and ridiculous about that. In Dunham there is this desire to reveal everything ugly and make it beautiful by sharing it, like the light of human mutual understanding will cleanse it. I really love that about her, even if at times it repels people because it swings into self-indulgent narcissism. There is something so innocent about that impulse, and also deeply brave.

i really liked it.

What can I say about the essays that make up this book? Weird, vulgar, dirty but yet purely transparent.

I respect Dunham honesty. However, I cannot say that I enjoyed this book.
I do not connect with Dunham on any level. It seems throughout the book, she was trying too hard. As though, she was trying to shock the reader. I did not take away that she was so cool or even had any real adventure. I left the book feeling incredibly sad for her.

I thought I'd absolutely love it, that I'd think it was funny and interesting and inventive and witty. But honestly, I thought none of it. Don't blame me, no one is more disappointed than myself.

Cute. Sometimes poignant. Predominantly enjoyable.

I'm glad I heard not-so-great reviews about this book, because I came into it with low expectations.

I can see how it would be harder to enjoy if you are not a woman in your 20's, because a lot like Girls, it is very essentially mid twenties: a young women grappling with childhood as much as recent adult years, unsure of how to move forward doing what she knows she wants to do, uncompromising, in both personal and professional life. Isn't that true of all of us young females? There's a certain hopeful terror for people our age. I found the essays relatable; her feelings and her takeaways are not ones of a wisened woman, just a girl who grew up and is still growing up.

I love the writing style. It's hilariously neurotic, brutally honest and at times, startlingly poetic. But it's not pretty. It's not always funny. I like that. It's unabashedly self-absorbed. We're all self-absorbed. It's a little weird, and a little dramatic, but mostly it's real and very poignant for the confused 20-something. I truly think it touches something in all of us, artists especially.

Well, this was definitely an interesting read?! It's not really what I was expecting... Lena Dunham and I have absolutely nothing in common other than we're apparently both anxious messes at time, so it was pretty hard to relate to. The stories/anecdotes (because I don't think they were really essays) were pretty entertaining though and I love her sense of humour.

Amazing!!!

I really didn't think this was bad. At the beginning of the book I really enjoyed it. But as it went on I was unable to grasp how the author was jumping from topic to topic or story to story. I am sure to her it made sense, but to me not at all. I also was not able to connect to her character through the book. (This is nothing how I grew up) But I feel like I should have been able to connect to the character in some way. I don't know what it was about this (the writing, the somewhat absurdity of some of the stories, i just don't know.
I have been interested in watching her TV show, after this I'm hoping that is much better than this book.

I blame my book club for this one. I didn't love this book, but it was fun to listen to on my morning walk to work. (I listened to the audiobook.) Lena Dunham has a great ability to describe her experiences in a way that seem to provide more generalizable insights on what it's like to grow up as an awkward, anxious, and privileged young woman in our culture. The scope of her insights may be narrow, but it is nonetheless informative, and parts of the book made me chuckle or cringe as I remembered the similarly dumb ways that have I navigated similar social and professional pressures.

I'm not going to lie, my resounding thoughts on autobiographical accounts are that, for the most part, they shouldn't not be written in your twenties! I also find the idea of these being ‘essays' somewhat misleading as I'd definitely see this more as a biographical insight into Lena's life and doesn't really set up to deliver any answers to a question or evidence anything as clearly as perhaps an academic paper would.

What I liked about this book was that Dunham is particularly direct about parts of us that we feel we should keep hidden or ‘too personal to talk about' when perhaps we should be thinking about these topics. At no point do I feel she sets herself up as being the role model of a generation and that thirdly she's not afraid to admit her mistakes and be judged for them.

I debate whether this was a timely publication in the vain of what Dunham had intended but it had it poignancy and charm.

Didn't finish. Felt like a very pretentious person at a party talking at you about themselves in a totally flat, uninviting way, while you half-listen and nod from time to time while trying to hunt down the people you came to the party with.