The book begins with some very painful childhood experiences... she was not just bullied, she was reviled. Even at a church sponsored summer camp, she was traded off by girls who should have been her friends, but sought social acceptance by joining in Margaret's (Moran's) humiliation. There are no adults around to intercede. Her parents seem to agree with the world's negative opinion of her. It is no surprise that she drops (flunks) out of school and finds companionship among those in society's other outcast groups.There are many raw examples of what was wrong with her life. For this reason, the book is probably censored away from the many badgered and taunted teenage girls who could use these reality lessons to understand the dynamics that are working against them. Margaret figures it out finally--- after some real hard knocks lessons.I read this in succession with Steve Martin's memoir about his stand up career Born Standing Up: A Comic's Life. In contrast, Margaret's book is much more intimate, informative and graphic. While Steve says it's lonely on the road-- Margaret describes it. The vignettes about finding a room around Fordham, driving on black ice, the booing in Monroe and the off duty bell hop, and more give the reader a real feel for what happens. Similarly, she describes how TV pilots are made from the business meeting with the humorless executives who decide what comedy shows will fly, to the high priority on the actress's weight, to the lack of interaction of the star and the writers. Martin reveals none of his experiences here.This book is raw and real. Fortunately it has an affirming ending for the reader, but especially for Margaret.
I really like Margaret Cho, and I liked the idea of this book, mostly from the self-empowerment title. It wasn't exactly what I was expecting. Less funny, and a lot more dark and depressing. A lot of the book focuses on her addiction to drugs and alcohol, and her self-image issues. And if it was a fictional book, I would probably have got frustrated with her as a protagonist and told her to get over it. But it was real, and she really went through it, and I can see why some people are put off the book because of it.However, the ending justified it all - it was the self-empowerment that I was looking for. My only complaint is that it felt like the final two chapters were tacked on the end as a last minute afterthought, 10 pages to lighten the mood after 150 pages of darkness and misery.Luckily, for me it still worked for the most part. The only part I found a struggle was the last 40 or so pages. By that point, I was ready for her to be over the drugs, and it felt like she was too - it felt like there was a lot less detail, and a lot more of just retreading the same ground. But as I said, it was worth it then for the conclusion that came of it. I just wish there was a bit more focus on it. {read 18/12/2014-28/12/2014}
What do You think about I'm The One That I Want (2002)?
This is a brutal, honest memoir about every painful event that made Margaret Cho the comedy diva that she is today. There is an amazing lot of introspection here -- levels of understanding that usually come from long hours in a psychiatrist's office, or from the pen of a ghost writer. For some reason, I get the feeling that neither apply here -- that Margaret is strong enough and smart enough to have come to these realizations on her own. The book starts with her birth and goes right up to the turn of the century. Along the way, Margaret experiences every kind of prejudice and abuse you can imagine. Anyone who reads this book will identify with at least a few parts of it, and hopefully will also share the understanding that nobody deserves it.
—Kristal Cooper
I haven't read this book in years but I wanted to leave some kind of a reminder to myself not to do it again. I love Margaret Cho and think she's hilarious. I'm grew up surrounded by Asians, of all kinds, and it amazes me how much her comedy rings true for all of them. Korean, Japanese, Vietnamese, Chinese, Filipino, or whatever: there seems to be a deep thread of shared cultural absurdity that manifests itself in surprisingly similar ways. I also get this feeling whenever I listen to Carlos Mencia, so maybe it's not confined to Asians (Where are the ah-ah-ah batteries?!) But comedy so often seems to always come from a dark place and Cho is not an exception. This book is extremely dark and like most of her life this book is not a happy one. It's so bad that I felt that the latter "happy ending" was a form of denial. A nice candy coating to make us all believe in silver linings. I had the same feeling after reading this book as I did when I read Silvia Plath's The Bell Jar. So, although I wish Cho the absolute best, I won't be reading this again.
—Magadored wants to extrude your face normals
I feel like I must have read this book before, because I went through a phase of reading all Margaret Cho's books a few years ago. I didn't particularly remember this one, so I got into it a few nights ago because I guess I felt like reading something empowering. A lot of Cho's writing borders on motivational speaker-y, which I typically don't go for. But she had a lot of terrible experiences, and it seems like she had to get in the habit of positive self-talk in order to dig herself out of the despair. So that makes all the platitudes tolerable -- for Cho, it seems like they're hard-won truths.Overall: it was a little cliched, and I think Cho is funnier on screen than in writing...but I'd still read one of her books if I was in need of a little self-love pep talk.
—Amy
