It's Hard Not To Hate You: A Memoir (2011) - Plot & Excerpts
If you have an inner demon that pokes out every once in awhile you can appreciate this book and it humor. A lot of what she says is spot on but hard to admit. There is a lot of complaining but I found it endearing. Quick, funny read but nothing life changing. I loved the part about the BFF parents...if you are one you will hate this book but I think that might be one of the points she is trying to make. I was over half through the book before I realized this was a memoir. The tiny red dot on the cover with "A Memoir" on it? I honestly thought it was a sticker the library had put on the book for sorting or shelving reasons!The fact that it's a memoir probably goes a long way to explaining why the 'plot' wasn't more obvious: Your life only has a discernible plot if you've done a whole lot of editing, and possibly outright lying.Faced with a dramatic health crisis, Frankel decides to 'unleash her inner hater'. This does not mean, as I originally feared, that she was going to run around adding hatefulness to the world. In fact, 'hate' often seemed the wrong word for what she was describing. 'Uncertainty', 'self-loathing', 'fear of failure' ... all those were included under the banner of 'hate'. Those made more sense than her inclusion of justifiable anger and statements of unflattering fact.It is not 'releasing your inner hater' to let a server know that you've been waiting 20 minutes and would like your drinks now, please. Nor is double-parking beside the woman who is talking on the phone in her car, who is fully aware you've been waiting for five minutes to unpack your groceries. That's called 'self-assertion', and only someone who'd spent decades denying herself the right to assert anything much at all would call it 'hating'.The chapter on jealousy was lost on me, and didn't, I think, reflect well on Frankel. However, I do not often struggle with jealousy. Frankel does. She was honest about herself, and her response -- to admit freely admit to the feeling and let it go, rather than seethe in it endlessly -- is healthy, so kudos to her. I'm sure I have failings that she doesn't which make me look bad by comparison. Everyone's different.The book made me laugh in a few spots, but I wouldn't call it 'hilarious'. It dragged from time to time. The chapter on children, though I agreed with pretty nearly every sentiment expressed, I found to be just a litany of harshly-expressed complaints. Boring.But all in all, though not what I was expecting when I started, it was a great book which I enjoyed reading. I'd have given it an extra half-star if the template allowed for it.
What do You think about It's Hard Not To Hate You: A Memoir (2011)?
It's how I feel about this book! Ugggghhhhh!
—sherin
I am starting to really like this author!
—bluerose
