Official Book Club Selection
Kathy Griffin is the diva of the "D-List." (She even stars in a reality show titled "Life on the D-List.") But she’s not bitter; she sees it as her calling to be the side-kick, not the marquee name.
Griffin also sees comedy as her calling, and she’s pitiless about who she skewers: Jerry Seinfeld, Steve Martin, Ellen DeGeneris, Conan O’Brien... they all get their comeuppance in these pages. (Of Martin, Griffin writes, "Well, let me tell you, he was a douche bag. He was such a douche bag it was like he was a caricature of a douche bag.")
But there are serious passages, as well; Griffin outs her brother as a suspected pedophile, traces the ups and downs of her career (trash talking celebs has a cost, especially if you’re making hay at the expense of talk show hosts), and discusses the suicide of fellow "Suddenly Susan" cast member David Strickland.
The roots of comedy, of course, lie in tragedy (or at least, as is the case here, binge-eating, promiscuity, and a desperate desire for fame), so there are moments in the book that are simultaneously hilarious and hair-raising--an Andy Dick comedy routine for a college audience that flames out, for example: seeing it coming, Griffin secures a folding chair and a soda, and sits back to take in the spectacle.
These parts are like something Quentin Tarantino might have come up with, which comes to seem inevitable when Griffin admits to having cuddled with the director ("I’ve never felt so dirty," Griffin jokes about innocently curling up with Tarantino. "Banging" half the men in Hollywood, on the other hand, is evidently all part and parcel of her fabulous D-list life).
Griffin talks a lot about her family, but she can’t help it: she’s the daughter of showbiz parents. Not a mother who pushed her into acting; nothing like that. Rather, Griffin decided her dad would be a natural on camera and got him a couple of auditions, only to see him make something of a career for himself as an actor in commercials. Indeed, mom and dad are such naturals that they fit right in on her "D-List" program.
Griffin has a "write-the-way-you-talk" style, which works for some authors, but which doesn’t always serve her well here. The audio book is sure to kill; there are stretches in these pages, however, in which the words beg to be lifted from the page and read aloud. Truly, this book is written in Griffin’s voice.
That being the case, you might want to ration Griffin’s memoir a chapter (or even half a chapter) at a time, unless you’re a diehard fan, as many gay men are; Griffin loves us and we, it seems, love her right back.
Of course, it’s hard not to love a book that includes a merrily profane "Reading Group Guide," sprinkles frank appeals to Oprah Winfrey throughout, and generally calls everybody who is anybody on their shit. That’s Griffin’s specialty, and she doesn’t go easy on friends or on herself: that’s the kernel of brutal honesty (or, at any rate, sheer brutality) that kicks Griffin’s material from the merely funny to the hilarious.
by Kathy Griffin
Publisher: Ballantine books. Publication Date: Sept. 8, 2009. Pages: 368. Price: $25. Format: Hardcover Original. ISBN-13: 978-0-345-518-514
