The first memoir by Julia Fox: Fox is famous for many things: her captivating acting, such as her breakout role in the film Uncut Gems; her trendsetting style, including bleached eyebrows, exaggerated eyeshadow, and cutout dresses; her mastery of social media, where she entertains and educates her millions of followers. But all these share the trait for which she is most famous: unabashedly and unapologetically being herself.
This isn’t the type of celebrity memoir filled with frivolous name-drops and flimsy anecdotes; it’s a revealing and often harrowing journey through the life of a person who has been reviled, adored and victimized — and also just happens to be recognizable ... Fox writes casually and in the present tense, as if she’s telling her story to friends and trying to transport them to each moment in time. And yet it remains clear as Fox parses her history...that she maintains an emotional distance from much of what she writes about ... Her habit of trying to tie up loose ends works to her detriment. As a writer, she pushes herself toward tidy emotional resolutions she doesn’t appear to be ready to feel ... For someone who claims she doesn’t want to be a celebrity, Fox is pretty good at being one.
Fox makes a case for herself as one of her generation’s most authentic storytellers, cutting through niche fame and viral moments with a clarion voice and a worldly-wise sensibility honed from the thrills and near-death experiences she’s witnessed during her 33 years of life ... Fox is strikingly straightforward, taking accountability for her own role in the havoc wreaked or damage done like a true antiheroine ... With this unfiltered authenticity, Fox’s true appeal as both a writer and a persona is apparent—the memoir is a practice in radical transparency. While other high-profile memoir writers might carefully construct their narratives in the service of maintaining a calculated public image, Fox takes an unflinching look back at both the exhilarating and painful moments of her life, one that she has chronicled as only she can.
The book is not without bizarre details ... But the overall image she presents of herself is almost archetypal ... In real life, or life mediated by non-print media, Fox is fantastically fascinating. Those who dismiss her as almost-famous-for-being-famous, trying and failing to keep up with the Kardashians, miss how perfectly she’s mastered her metamorphic art of self-fashioning.
