Discuss Yes Please

[Kayla]

Drop your thoughts here about our Main pick for April!

Please be aware that this post may contain spoilers.

[Kayla]

Just finished the audiobook for Yes, Please! and wanted to share some thoughts while the book was still fresh in my mind.

(view spoiler)[
I found the chapter on Anastasia and how Amy dealt with guilt to be powerful and the most human part of the book. Up to that point, Amy felt like someone who wasn't very relatable- she was funny and humble, she made friends and even when she was working her way to the top she never came across as a "real person". When she opened up about trying to get other people on her side of the argument, because guilt and anger are closely related, I felt more connected to her. Haven't we all had that moment when we wanted to prove we weren't really that wrong as we apologized?

The rest of the book felt like one long thank you to everyone she'd ever come in contact with. "So-and-So is sooooo talented and the most artistic person to ever live."
It's great that she has lovely things to say about those she worked with, but when everyone is the best it felt tedious as she droned on and on.

That being said, I like Amy + Tina Fey as a comedy duo and have found Amy's work in Parks and Rec to be funny, emotional, and just plain good. I guess this book was just a bit of a let down, but if she ever wrote another i'd give it a try.
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[Matthew]

I'm not all the way through yet but generally agree with you. My biggest critiques are that she relies on cliches and gender stereotypes far too much and that the book lacks any focus or direction.

In re the gender stereotypes, here are some icky things that I wrote down while listening to the book today: (1) "every mother needs a wife"; (2) "stay a virgin as long as possible until it feels weird"; (3) "men are very visual creatures"; and (4) "don't make fun of men." I suspect that she probably knows better, considering she spent a few pages talking about how good of friends she is with Kathleen Hanna.

Generally, the book was lazily written and the above were probably a symptom of this laziness. Another example of laziness is that she touches on a million things without any focus or depth - i.e. why mention that you went to John McCain's house once if you're not going to describe this experience or what this experience meant to you?

She tries to preempt the disappointment with a long iteration of excuses in the beginning of the book, which reduced my patience with the book because it indicates that she is aware of what she subjected readers to, but decided to publish without further editing anyways.

Underneath all of the cliches, name dropping, and bad jokes, I found some value in that she gives some interesting historical narratives surrounding the origins of UCB and her era of SNL. However, I think the WTF podcast has already explored some of this and is much better done. This book could have been better if she focused more on this history.

[Jennifer]

Never really connected with the book. I read the book, and tried to listen to the audio version. I loved Bossypants by Tina Fay, and I suppose I expected this to be as good. It wasn't.