It is a tonic, a gift for our anxious summer ... given to the surreal wit perfected by comedian Steven Wright. Becoming is salted throughout with her dry aperçus ... Becoming is many things, all of them splendid. It is a work of fiction, because Duchess is ... Becoming is also the best sort of self-help, demonstrating that creativity, generosity and even Twitter, when not harnessed for the dark arts, can offer salvation and lift all boats, including those stuck on the ocean floor ... The book is enriched by two distinct voices: one frank and vulnerable, the other all-knowing. You believe the details of the author’s life because, through Duchess, she’s committed to staying generous and true ... This sort of anonymity, in a time of too much oversharing on too many platforms, is a respite. We need magic. The book’s timing is inspired. It’s a summer cocktail of a book.
Full disclosure: I know the author of this memoir. I know Duchess Goldblatt the way I know Omar Little and Wonder Woman. I know her the way I know Rhoda Morgenstern and Tony Soprano ... Like most of her 25,000 followers, I feel as if I know her. We interact in real time and I have a strong sense of who she is. I like her posts, and every once in a while, she likes one of mine. And yet reviewing her book doesn’t compromise my ethics in the least. Because I really don’t know her at all ... In fact, the memoir does tell us who Duchess Goldblatt really is, without giving a name. As one of those followers who didn’t want to see behind the curtain, I found it deeply satisfying, unexpectedly moving and not spoilery in the least. And as lovable as the duchess herself ... Duchess and Anonymous subtly, slowly, become one person. She no longer feels alone; neither do her subjects. People find solace in this fictional character — and Anonymous does, too.
As a memoir, the story doesn’t shy away from the darker side of the writer’s life ... It also questions the ethics of memoir, of telling family stories that reveal other people’s secrets or bad behavior. Anonymity allows the writer to tell her story through the Duchess, while also preserving the family’s privacy ... Most importantly though, the Duchess is a light shining in the darkness, a beacon for troubled souls scrolling through their phones in the wee hours of the morning. Her presence has uplifted her human avatar, even as it heartens Her Grace’s ever-growing audience of 'loons' and 'rascals.' She might be an invention of social media, but—as the Duchess would say—her love is real.
The writer goes to great lengths in the book to demarcate herself from the Duchess. Goldblatt is an alter ego, someone onto whom she can project her pain and have it come back in the form of jokes. An obvious model is Dorothy Parker, but in a way the writer’s creative nimbleness and insistence on anonymity brings to mind someone more like Lee Israel. (The reviewer would like to say: I would hope the Duchess takes this as a complement and not a slight, Your Grace.) ... It’s loving the bizarre and cherishing the weird that Goldblatt does best. And it’s why so many people trust her to tell them how to live, how to treat themselves with more compassion, how to treat each other better, too.
The Duchess’ creator is anonymous, and that is the biggest problem with the new memoir, Becoming Duchess Goldblatt. We don’t know who the narrator is, which makes it impossible to understand her transformation — or, frankly, to much care ... Becoming Duchess Goldblatt is one of the summer’s buzzy books...but, frankly, I’m not feeling it ... The bar is and needs to be high for anonymous memoirs — with no names or identifying characteristics, where’s the accountability? Is all of this true? Is any of it true? ... For all its flaws, the Goldblatt memoir does carry a hopeful message, one we certainly need now: People can be kind, the world can be a giving place, unhappiness can change into happiness, and there are many different ways to find community.
... the most compelling parts of Becoming Duchess Goldblatt come when the author explores her family’s past. She creates wrenchingly intimate portraits of her father, who is generous to a fault, and her brother, who struggles with mental illness ... Not all readers will appreciate the Duchess’ humor or understand why anyone would bother to follow her online. The woman in the painting doesn’t strike everyone as kind. And some will wonder whether the unnamed author is herself a construction of some kind ... It’s true that the author could be leading us astray. But her story, a kind of reverse Frankenstein, rings true: When her life was in tatters, she created a character out of spare parts of herself and used it to create the community she craved. That lesson can never be heard too often. Like objects in a rearview mirror, the inspiration we seek may be closer than we think.
... the tone of Becoming Duchess Goldblatt feels quite honest ... There are times in the book when [the author's] portrayal of her situation borders on the self-indulgent. But then she begins to tell us more about her family of origin: a gentle father who died too young, her addicted brother with suicidal mental illness, her own selective mutism during her childhood years. Rather than merely overwrought self-pity, readers recognize that the author is suffering through intense despair ... a light and comforting read, perfectly pitched for these chaotic times. Although Duchess Goldblatt uses her quirky lovingkindness to bring people together, the memoir’s author feels that the character’s greatest gift has been to the author herself. Over time, Duchess Goldblatt has helped the author find her own voice, not just the spirit of her father. She speaks with a voice full of both wit and generosity. Although there are moments when this final claim sounds a bit maudlin, the book nevertheless reminds us that reaching out with open hearts, perhaps with the 'evergreen love of all humanity' that Duchess Goldblatt has, brings deep meaning to our own lives as well as the lives of others.
The author is a heck of a writer; readers will rejoice when she sees she’s not so different from her dear creation after all. A surprising, joyful story of social media at its best.
How does a fictional character write a real memoir? Very, very well ... [a] striking memoir ... The book is prismatic, moving among the author’s difficult childhood, the years after her divorce, and her growing relationships with people Duchess had befriended—only a few of whom, including Lovett, have ever met her. She wrestles with the questions of whether she and Duchess are two separate people and how Duchess makes friends so easily when she herself feels almost friendless. Lovett’s manager called what she’s doing 'collaborative performance art,' and that’s an apt term for it; together with Duchess’ followers, she’s created a long-term fever dream of humor, compassion, wordplay, and dog photos ... A fascinating memoir by a 21st-century original.
