Enjoyment of Wild West Village may be dependent on your tolerance for the Kirkes and their, well, quirks: the free-wheeling careening of a family unbound to money or wealth ... Lacks the expected gossip of a celebrity memoir.
The essays are predominantly about her family: her father’s infidelities, her sister’s cruelties, her complicated relationship with her mother. The other rich themes she alludes to, those that had the potential to elevate the anecdotes to a more insightful commentary on the cultural and societal context for her experiences, are slight ... Kirke is an engaging writer, and excellent company, but despite the frank and often darkly comedic accounts of her family’s antics there is a sense of her still pulling her punches. Joan Didion would probably suggest that she dig a little deeper.
Kirke has a very disarming, charming way of writing about her life, even when she suffers ... Kirke draws you in with her humor and captivating sense of self, her fears, her loves, and her attempts to be a certain kind of girl (then woman) before realizing that she is fine just the way she is.
This memoir-in-essays will appeal to anyone who enjoys unforgettable characters and fearless storytelling from a writer unafraid to face down her own demons. A funny, raw, and painful book about a woman’s chaotic, thoroughly individual path to coming into her own.
