Jo Anne C. (MOI) reviewed on 4/25/2008 + 37 more book reviews

Helpful Score: 5

I nearly stopped reading halfway through the book because I could not quite get sympathetic to the author. When an anecdote that in anyone else's life would have seemed cause for hilarity angered her sufficiently to move out of her parents' house, I was left thinking she was too selfish and lacking in a sense of humor for me to warm up to. I suspected her anger was probably justified but she had not built her case with her writing by that point.

Her take on her reasons for leaving job after job after job seem self-centered and sometimes a rationalization for amoral behavior. (This is underscored at the end when her colleagues give a round of applause for a coworker who revealed how he had gotten away with stealing from his employer on a regular basis.)

Realizing that capturing one's life in memoirs is not the easiest task, I kept reading. It was worth sticking with the book because there were a few nearly poignant and dramatic moments in the second half, but her telling of them often left me with a profound sense of "meh."

All in all, Wendy Werris's sense of self worth seems to come from the opportunity to drop names of famous people she has lived with, been related to or worked with. I found little to admire in either her life or her telling of it.

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