The book instead offers, overall—for author and reader alike—a compelling kind of catharsis: It is, contrary to the postmodern parfait that is Schumer’s standard act, decidedly un-layered. It is Schumer, the celebrity, shedding Schumer, the schtick. It is a memoir that is also an unapologetic paean to self-love ... One one level, The Girl With the Lower Back Tattoo is simply another memoir...But Schumer’s stories are really, particularly good ... Schumer had to learn, and earn, her swagger. And that is the most compelling aspect of her extremely compelling memoir.
Schumer has written a probing, confessional, unguarded, and, yes, majorly humanizing non-memoir, a book that trades less on sarcasm, and more on emotional resonance.
After some initial throat-clearing in the first 30 pages (the book's weakest), Schumer weaves a brave, vulnerable tale without falling into the usual celebrity traps of neediness and defense ... She's also hilarious, which manages to come through on the page.
The Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo is laugh-out-loud funny when Schumer wants it to be, but more often, it’s surprisingly honest and raw — much more like a straightforward memoir than even she appears to believe ... on the whole, this book is far less a portable joke factory than it is a real, deep dive into Schumer’s life.
While many celebrity memoirs read like raucous meditations on being a performer, Schumer’s tests the bounds of dark humor ... Schumer’s stories of experiencing misogyny wind up being among the most light-hearted tales in the memoir...Schumer concludes that humor has largely allowed to get her through these hardships, though as a reader you often find it difficult to laugh.
Ms. Schumer’s voice remains present and her humility shines throughout. She’s created one of the most heartfelt, self-reflective and (mostly) honest high-profile autobiographies to hit bookshelves in years, one that’s unafraid to expose troublesome relationships, relentless family drama and personal insecurities with an unflinching commitment to emotional sincerity — regardless of the subject matter ... an independent, brave, moving and highly respectable literary debut.
The equation here is simple: If you love Schumer, then you’ll love her book, which extends and deepens our sense of her personality ... In the end, it’s her titular lower-back tattoo that provides the metaphor for her outlook on life: make mistakes fearlessly, and wear them with pride when you do.
In trying to be so likable, Schumer seems dishonest. The only essays that ring true are those about her family, in particular the one in which she describes how it felt to watch her increasingly sick father lose control of his bowels in an airport and, later, how furious she still is with her mother for having had an affair 20 years ago ... As you’d expect of a comedian of Schumer’s calibre, the writing captures her voice and is often funny. But this book proves the theory that the larger a book’s advance, the less editing it gets.
...signature Schumer through and through—a hilarious, brutal, and graphic read. Coming in book form is both a strength and weakness; writing lets Schumer be a little more intimate with her audience, going into asides and longer, more thematic material than works for stand-up and sketch comedy. But those are also where Schumer is strongest, and it occasionally feels like some of the material would be better suited to TV, in front of a live audience.
Beyond the many powerful and empowering takeaways of The Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo—from loving the hustle to self-love—perhaps the most overlooked is that of a woman’s right to not only make mistakes, but to make art out of them ...What Schumer imparts to the reader is that the greatest power of the storyteller, of the comic, is that of controlling the narrative.
The topics are heavy, and an important part of her identity, but things never get too maudlin. You won't cry for her; you're more likely to cheer and laugh ... The book's diction is snappy, conversational, run-on and brash. It's almost like listening to a friend gush or vent. You're getting a lot of raw, honest information all at once so you better keep up
