After a few thoughtful books on books in recent weeks, it was time for some pure distraction reading: Chelsea Handler. Seem a strange choice for this bookworm? It is, but it came recommended from a very good (and very smart) friend (who also writes music reviews).
My Horizontal Life is exactly what the subtitle promises it will be: a collection of essays detailing Handler's series of one-night stands. Though I'm not familiar with Handler's stand up, it is clear from her writing that she is a downright funny gal; the kind of party animal that is simultaneously thrilling and exhausting. Her memoir is, in that respect, a perfect reflection of its author.
Handler spares her readers no detail, accounting for the un-endowed and too-endowed conquests of her nightly rampages; the midget and the strange black man; the stranger and the friend. She drags in her family, her family relationships; her friends, her friendships; her thoughts on monogamy and settling, her resistance to growing up. This much material threatens to fall apart at the seams, bouncing from one subject to the next, but Handler's honesty and quick sense of humor holds it together.
Bottom line: Handler is straightforward in everything: in her accounts of her past, her feelings about her experiences, and what to expect in her essays. She does not disappoint in her promise of honesty, which leaves readers laughing out loud one moment (she has an extremely entertaining inner monologue) and pondering the consequences of growing up the next. Raw, honest, and emotional, My Horizontal Life might not be perfect, but it is certainly a fun dip into something a bit different for an avid reader. Kind of like a one-night stand itself: maybe not your real taste, but a quick read, then time to move on to something else. Not to say you won't appreciate that one night, of course.
---
Thoughts from other bookworms:
What Red Read: I Prefer to Do My Walks of Shame in the Evening, When It's Not So Bright
Novel Whore: My Horizontal Life
---
More from Chelsea Handler:
Chelsea, Chelsea, Bang, Bang (March 2010)
Are You There Vodka? It's Me, Chelsea (February 2010)
Lies that Chelsea Handler Told Me (May 2011)
