Review: Bossypants, by Tina Fey

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During the mainstream TV season, one show I never miss is 30 Rock. Not typically a fan of sitcoms, most of which treat their audiences like morons, Tina Fey's brain child makes my must watch list by poking fun at actual issues. It doesn't hurt either, that the jokes are obviously skewed to reflect a liberal bias, which I personally identify with. Much like The Simpsons, 30 Rock uses over the top caricatures of cultural stereotypes to lampoon politics, business, pop culture, and social traditions, while treating viewers like intelligent well informed people. Thus, when the show's creator/head writer/star, Tina Fey, wrote a humorous memoir about her life, I didn't have to think twice before snatching up a copy.

Like most memoirs, Bossypants begins with Tina's childhood. It then chronicles her early acting years, continues on to her tenure at Saturday Night Live, and includes her time at 30 Rock. She uses the last few chapters to answer letters from supposed belligerent fans, and to speculate on her final five minutes of fame.

The story of her life is filled with humorous observations regarding her adolescent discovery of womanhood, her first experiences with gay people, her time working at the YMCA, the behavior of male writers, breast feeding mothers, and other parts of her life. We even see her express a moderate amount of respect for the motherly side of Sarah Palin. These chapters are sharp funny and a pleasure to read.

On the flip side, while the last few chapters are funny, the come across as forced filler, written to extend the book to a desired length. Perhaps it's just me, but I can't fathom of a person who'd write to her asking why she's so ugly. First of all, she's not ugly, and secondly, the question of aesthetics isn't typically expressed as a why-type question.

Even with the latter deficits, Bossypants is a witty entertaining fun read. I give it 4 out 5 stars.
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