Publishers Weekly
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In this frank account, Girls cocreator Dunham (Not That Kind of Girl) takes an unsparing look at the physical and emotional costs of her first decade in the spotlight. Pre-Girls chapters hum with the energy of a downtown N.Y.C. memoir, with Dunham furiously writing scripts, casually collaborating with the pre-fame Safdie brothers, and having questionable sex. After Girls enters the picture in 2011, the book’s three central relationships click into focus: the hot-and-cold one between Dunham and her Girls cocreator Jenni Konner; the gradually devastating one between Dunham and her then boyfriend Jack Antonoff; and the mercurial, often-debilitating one between Dunham and her own body. As she recounts surgery after surgery seeking relief from a complex set of chronic conditions including Ehlers Danlos syndrome and endometriosis, Dunham wincingly takes stock of all the ways she ignored physical, emotional, and spiritual signals to slow down, pushing through her pain until she developed an addiction to Klonopin, broke up with Konner and Antonoff, and moved to London to rebuild her life. Though the subject matter is heavy, Dunham’s self-deprecating humor and penchant for gossipy anecdotes provide crucial counterweight. Readers put off by the author’s past brashness need not apply, but fans of Girls and Dunham’s previous book will be more than satisfied. Agent: Bill Clegg, Clegg Agency. (Apr.)