America should be worried about Tina Fey. She’s not in any kind of trouble, but she really does seem to be working too hard. In addition to writing, acting and producing the television show "30 Rock," she has now written a biography. She makes it clear in her book that she is aware of this, but doesn’t care too much about it. She loves her work too much to care.
"Bossypants" is an autobiography of sorts. It’s made up of stories from Tina’s life that span her growth from a girl who is a bit scared of her dad to a woman who was once scared of her boss. The chapters vary from a tribute and meditation on her father and her lack of understanding of him as a child, her disastrous honeymoon, all the way to her thoughts about having a second child.
"Bossypants" is in some ways a feminist look at the life of a woman trying to make it as an actor and writer, the challenges built by society and the things she did (or didn’t) do to deal with them. The feminist aspect isn’t anything preachy. It’s not the focus of the book, but Fey’s sharp mind allows for her to comment on gender issues and sexism in a very intelligent, sarcastic and sometimes hilarious way. Her voice is funny but maintains a level of serious frustration about inequality regardless of the humor, which adds a truly thought provoking side to this very funny book.
Did I mention these chapters have great jokes in them? Some of them are horribly rough (that is to say harsh), many are off-color and most of them are just side splitting. I found myself laughing aloud in the book store I was reading in. A sample “You could put a blonde wig on an old radiator, and somewhere a guy will [have sex with] it.” This comes in the middle of Fey’s idea that we should start calling blonde hair yellow, because that’s really what it is.
Her humor is natural and her subject matter too, it’s usually about routines, stress in day to day life. As a male fan of Fey I can fairly say that this book is not 100 percent written for me (biggest no Duh ever, why should it be?). Ninety percent of this book is for everyone. Its generally funny anecdotes about life that human beings should be able to relate to in one way or another, but there are parts of this book that some male readers aren’t going to make it though.
She has a chapter of simple beauty tips, which is worth reading for the skin pointers but mostly is over my head as I know very little about the process of beauty and make up and what not. I feel bad even mentioning this, because how many times has a women HAD to read a book about a troubled male youth/youths. I’m looking at you "Catcher in the Rye," and "Lord of the Flies," and "Hamlet" and just about every book ever. So really I should be quiet about this. Sorry, Tina.
If Fey comes off as the East Coast Liberal Elite she often jokes about being, I would be surprised. Because of the honesty and candidness of her recollections, we are reminded in so many ways that we are all the same, or at least very similar. She came from a similar same high school we went to in a community that’s equally American. We have funny, crappy jobs sometimes. We stress out about work and family. Our vacations don’t always go as planned. What Fey’s message seems to be is to keep your head down and working, and remember to laugh.
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