I'll Show Myself Out
Essays on Midlife and Motherhood
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4.0 • 2 Ratings
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- $4.99
Publisher Description
An instant New York Times bestseller, I'll Show Myself Out is the eagerly anticipated second essay collection from Jessi Klein, author of the acclaimed debut You’ll Grow Out of It.
Longlisted for the PEN Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award for the Art of the Essay
“Sometimes I think about how much bad news there is to tell my kid, the endlessly long, looping CVS receipt scroll of truly terrible things that have happened, and I want to get under the bed and never come out. How do we tell them about all this? Can we just play Billy Joel’s We Didn’t Start the Fire and then brace for questions? The first of which should be, how is this a song that played on the radio?”
In New York Times bestselling author and Emmy Award-winning writer and producer Jessi Klein’s second collection, she hilariously explodes the cultural myths and impossible expectations around motherhood and explore the humiliations, poignancies, and possibilities of midlife.
In interconnected essays like “Listening to Beyoncé in the Parking Lot of Party City,” “Your Husband Will Remarry Five Minutes After You Die,” “Eulogy for My Feet,” and “An Open Love Letter to Nate Berkus and Jeremiah Brent,” Klein explores this stage of life in all its cruel ironies, joyous moments, and bittersweetness.
Written with Klein’s signature candor and humanity, I'll Show Myself Out is an incisive, moving, and often uproarious collection.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
The pitfalls of motherhood are riotously funny when they’re explored by whip-smart comedian Jessi Klein. In this collection of essays, the star of Big Mouth gives us a totally unfiltered view of her quest to raise her son while holding onto her sanity. Her many cringey moments—from the indignity of the post-birth “underwear sandwich” to the frustration of car seats and potty training—are so uncomfortably real that you might feel just a teensy bit bad…if you weren’t laughing so hard. Taking a cue from Hollywood movies, she talks about her trials and tribulations from her son’s birth to entering preschool as if they’re part of her dramatic hero’s journey—which sounds about right to anyone with kids. Klein’s wicked smarts make this more than just another lighthearted mommyhood memoir. She dives fearlessly into the weirdness, discomfort, and pain of being a first-time parent while being both relatable and hilarious. Revel in the ridiculousness that parenthood can bring with I’ll Show Myself Out.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Comedian Klein (You'll Grow Out of It) takes a moving look at motherhood in this bold and irreverent collection. The 22 essays offer a refreshing take on parenthood, mixing brutal honesty, candid emotion, and humor. "Mom Clothes" considers the author's experience hanging on to baby weight post-labor and "the sheer unending exhaustion" of motherhood, while "The Car Seat" is a heartfelt take on the author's frustration with car seats, and the loss of self as she sees "Baby on Board" car stickers and wonders why she can't have one that simply reads "Me on Board." "Bread and Cheese" is an ode to the insanity of picky eaters: "Of all the childhood behaviors that trigger me... Asher's refusal to eat is the one that makes me most want to tantrum myself." "In Defense of Drinking" is a response to anti "Mommy Drinking" sentiment, in which she labels alcohol an "ongoing epidural." Klein is full of surprises, and moments of hilarity often dissolve into unexpected glimpses of joy: her reminder that "being a parent is a lot like having a dream.... Most of it, even when it's ugly, is beautiful," for example, lands with grace. Funny, clever, and full of heart, this one's a gem.
