The Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo

Starred review from August 22, 2016
In her first book, the Emmy Award-winning comedian offers an entertaining and eclectic collection of 30-plus essays, including "An Open Letter to My Vagina" and "Forgiving My Lower Back Tattoo." Her prose, like her popular comedy act, is plucky, forthright, hilariously raunchyâand honest. Though she claims the book is not an autobiography (at the age of 35, Schumer asserts, it's too early to share her life story), readers will learn of her childhood on Long Island, born into "New Money" (her father ran an exclusive baby furniture shop). By the time she's 10, however, challenging times have fallen on the family: the business is lost, her parents eventually divorce, and her beloved alcoholic father is diagnosed with MS. Schumer works various jobs (waitressing, pedicab driver, etc.) but ultimately is true to her passion for inspiring laughter. The book's centerpiece is a comparatively longer essay on her career, revealing the hard work of touring and the dedication, heartaches, missteps, and triumphs on the path to stand-up success. Along with off-the-wall one-liners, anecdotes, and confessions, Schumer shares some solemn experiences, such as bodysurfing with her disabled dad for the last time, and her involvement in an abusive relationship with a boyfriend ("When you're in love with a man who hurts you, it's a special kind of hell, yet one that so many women have experienced"). Amid ill-fated dates, alcohol-induced blackouts, and late-night eating binges, Schumer, in these candid, well-crafted essays, wears her mistakes "like badges of honor."