| Title | : | Would Everybody Please Stop?: Reflections on Life and Other Bad Ideas |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 0374709505 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780374709501 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | ebook |
| Number of Pages | : | 240 |
| Publication | : | First published June 6, 2017 |
| Awards | : | Thurber Prize American Humor (2018) |
In Would Everybody Please Stop?, a collection of first-person essays and humor pieces, Jenny Allen asks the tough questions: Why do people say “It is what it is”? What’s the point of fat-free half-and-half? Why don’t the women detectives on TV carry purses, and where are we supposed to think they keep all their stuff? And haven’t we heard enough about memes?
Reporting from the potholes midway through life’s journey, Allen addresses these and other more serious matters, like the rude awakenings of being single after twenty-five years, of mothering a teenager, and of living with a serious illness. She also discusses life’s everyday trials, like the horrors of attempting a crafts project, the anxieties of being a houseguest, and the ever-changing rules of recycling.
Allen is a performer at heart—her one-woman show I Got Sick Then I Got Better premiered in 2009, and she regularly acts in other plays—and she brings that same spirit to these thirty-five short essays, which read like the work of a female Dave Barry. Writing on places both real (like a swag den for celebrities at Sundance and the parking lot at L.L.Bean’s flagship store) and imaginary (a Buddhist retreat attended by Martha Stewart, Elmer Fudd’s psychotherapy appointment), Allen’s wit and compassion give a fresh slant on the vicissitudes of day-to-day, and not so day-to-day, life.
Would Everybody Please Stop?: Reflections on Life and Other Bad Ideas Reviews
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Jenny Allen is hilarious, and her new collection of essays proves it. Would Everybody Please Stop? kept me laughing – at times with tears streaming down my face - from the time I picked it up until I finished it (all in one sitting). A few of the essays are more serious, addressing topics relevant to today’s world, but every essay is outstanding. I loved each and every one which rarely happens to me when reading a compilation such as this one. My favorite hands down was “How to Tie-Dye” where she decides she has free time while staying in a motel during a snow storm and starts to tie-dye a bunch of shirts. The project goes hilariously awry. I enjoyed it so much that as I was writing this review I had to go back and read it again. “Swagland”, “Take My House, Please”, and “My Gratitudes” are not far behind. I also really liked “My New Feminist Cop Show” which I truly appreciated because the issues she raises are ones I have repeatedly mentioned to my husband while watching shows with female detectives. Her essay on this topic is spot on. I also loved “I Have to Go Now” because that is exactly what happens to me when we decide to stay at someone’s home instead of in a hotel. I highly recommend Would Everybody Please Stop? Thanks to NetGalley and Farrar, Strauss, Giroux for the chance to read this ARC in exchange for an honest review.
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I am officially done with essay collections. This sealed it for me. I find them too dated and just not for me. 2 stars
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"One of the funniest writers in America" -- Andy Borowitz
Oh, Andy. In your defense, I'm sure you said to yourself, "No one takes jacket blurbs seriously." And you're right. But... okay. Fine. Still, I hope you felt at least a little guilty.
Not all the essays are dull. A few are mildly funny (I didn't laugh out loud, or even chortle, once while reading this book.) or interesting. "Swagland," about a trip with her daughter to the Sundance Film Festival, is modestly amusing. And "I Can't Get that Pen** Out of My Mind," where she talks about having accidentally intercepted a ... well, a pen** pic sent to her thirteen year old daughter, is surprisingly thoughtful and sweet. "Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow," which concerns wigs and chemo, is worth reading. But most of them are just terribly dull. Basically just lists. Foods she likes. Things that are wrong with her house. Anxieties she has as a houseguest. Maybe if they were delivered skillfully in a stand-up comedy routine, to a fairly drunk audience, they'd get laughs? But in book form they don't. Or, at least they didn't for me. -
I was not prepared for the barrage of petty grievances found in this book. I was not prepared to hear [so and so] "looks a little gay" as a sly aside???? I wasn't prepared for an entire chapter dedicated to an imaginary interview with Elmer Fudd??? I wasn't prepared for list after list after list of: things wrong with her house, things she doesn't like that other people do, things she'd borrow from an imaginary friend (very detailed). And the whole time there were wildly ableist overtones for truly petty reasons-- being on a help line ends with her imaginary self ending up in the "looney bin" or when she said everyone should walk with walkers all the time to help stop themselves from ever falling before quickly scoffing and saying that would be "pathetic." Pathetic was used a lot, ironically.
Overall this truly felt like "Jenny Allen's Shower Thoughts" that should've just stayed in the shower. -
I was looking for something funny and I didn't find this humorous at all, but rather ordinary.
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Very fun. A delightful collection of essays. Many I completely appreciate, and not just for the humor. Jenny Allen's heartfelt and brave sharing of personal experiences complements the laughter she inspires.
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Jenny Allen is a whacky writer and this book was such a pleasure to read. Her mental meanderings are entertaining yet familiar, and I find it so comforting to read a train of thought I’ve had myself. I particularly loved the story “Speak, Memory” in this regard. I related for myself during some stories, and for my mother, who has been through divorce and is navigating the world anew after decades of being one of two shakers, during others. Throughout, there is a humorous and graceful approach to the decidedly ungraceful situations life sometimes puts us in.
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I love her voice (both style and sound-great audiobook!) and find her personal essays better than her fictional pieces. Laughed out loud several times, and the humor is balanced with levity. But the scale tips towards humor. Basically I want Jenny to be my friend.
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This book is about pet peeves and annoyances, mostly. And I found myself annoyed by her annoyances, impatient with the focus on what niggles, what chafes, and what hurts. I recalled the old engineering aphorism a lot... "you get what you measure..." and a life spent focusing on annoyances seems to me best left between the covers of a book. DNF.
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Wonderful and very funny.
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Hilariously funny! Author was real and "down to earth". Great book just to sit down and laugh with.
I received this book thru Netgalley, but it had no bearing on the rating I gave it. -
Allen's collection of reflections is highly variable. Some stories, especially those at the beginning of the book, were so banal - "I like food, I lose things all the time, my ex-husband is mean, people need to stop being so annoying". Yes, and...?
Other stories were bizarre, original and humour-driven. Some missed the mark for me - that entry imagining Elmer Fud in therapy (Tawk Thewapy) - what? But others were entertaining and I appreciated the originality (Scary Stories for Grown-ups).
Finally, some stories about experiences in Allen's life were genuinely interesting and others could learn from them, such a Swagland, a behind-the-scenes look at the Sundance Film Festival, or Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow about purchasing and wearing wigs during chemotherapy treatment.
The overall sense from this collection is one of confusion. The book tries to be too many different things and ends up failing to be very good at anything. (Sloane Crosley's essays are more intricate and thoughtful. Jenny Lawson's books are more honest and interesting in their eccentricities. B.J. Novak and David Sedaris do short, hilarious stories much better, fiction and non-fiction respectively.)
Some of the reflections on life were really good, but, as the title implies, there were lots of bad ideas in this book too. -
I was expecting more from this book. It started off very well. The essay on not being able to sleep was hilarious. Toward the middle of the book, it dropped off a bit. There were some funny essays, but not enough to make you want to keep reading. This book is ok, not great just ok. Thanks to NetGalley, the author and the publisher for the ARC of this book in return for my honest review.
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I'm dithering between 3.5 and 4 stars for Jenny Allen's humorous and often (for me, at least) spot-on essays on Being a Woman of a Certain Age. Some folks will compare this to Nora Ephron's marvelous I FEEL BAD ABOUT MY NECK and I can see why. But the tone is completely different. Ephron writes in a more languid tone, as if she and the reader were chatting on a porch while sipping white wine. In WOULD EVERYBODY PLEASE STOP? Allen flings her sentences and thoughts. She reminds me of that mesmerizing guest you meet at a party who borders on being obnoxious but stops just short.
At her best, Allen is LOL hilarious as in "Can I Have Your Errands?" when she muses on the message men in finance send out by wearing suspenders: "I'm the sort of fellow whose pants will never fall down, so you can trust me with your money?" And in "Scary Stories for Grown-Ups" which every person over the age of 50 will delight in, especially grandparents.
Other essays seem tacked on. Often in this slim book I had the sense Allen was pressed for three or four more entries and phoned them in. That's a shame because when her writing is at its best, she's charming and entertaining. -
In Jenny Allen's seriocomic collection of essays, "Would Everybody Please Stop?" the author shares her pet peeves, discusses her personal challenges (among them, divorce and cancer), and puts a unique spin on such subjects as insomnia, meditation, aging, memory, and affluence (or the lack it). Some of the essays have a strong undercurrent of wistfulness and sorrow. Without wallowing in self-pity, the author relates what it is like to be alone after 25 years of being part of a couple and, in addition, having to worry about paying the bills.
In a particularly funny chapter, "Take My House Please," Allen pretends to offer her ramshackle place on Martha's Vineyard for rent. Since she is a woman of integrity, she has a few warnings for potential customers: The water supply is funky, the wiring is dodgy, the fragile pseudo-foundation settles noisily, and you need to a Mr. or Ms. Fix-It if you want to keep the toilet flushing.
She also rages—with justification--against using "disconnect" as a noun and wishes people would stay away from the tired expressions "it is what it is" and "at the end of the day." In another piece, Allen wonders what it would be like to run a rich person's errands instead of plowing through her own mundane chores. Anyone who has been in her shoes can empathize with the strain of having to drag one's cantankerous parent to the doctor. Unfortunately, some of the essays--such as those that deal with swag, sexting, Elmer Fudd, and tie-dyeing--fall flat. Still, when she is on her game, Allen writing is original, imaginative, and insightful. She understands the ways in which we disappoint one another; make fools of ourselves; and struggle to cope with the effects of illness, aging, low self-esteem, and sexism. Ms. Allen empathizes with those of us who suffer tribulations that make us want to remain in bed instead of looking to the future with misguided optimism. -
This book is funny and sad, I felt like Jenny said what I feel about many things. Especially the Subaru, except mine is only mine part time and the color of Subaru I've mistakenly tried to enter may be called cranberry, here in Ithaca. So much that now I say "hello Subaru!" More than I can count. Great reflection on aging unwillingly.
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Would Everybody Please Stop? is observational, conversational and stream-of-conciousness-tional. It's an easily read collection of essays on a wide range of subjects and of a wide range of genres. There's the psychological profile of one Elmer Fudd placed just a few pages before an essay on the author's debate between being a wig lady or a scarf lady in the face of chemotherapy. There's the note to her friends inviting them to stay at her beach house just a few essays before a (sure to be fulfilled) prophecy of Martha Stewart co-opting Buddhist culture. Then there's the time she's sure to be charged with murder after undertaking an ill-advised tie-dye project.
The book is enjoyable, conversational and a quick read. Parts of it shine, and other parts do not as much - all parts are brief, so you'll always have another great essay just a few pages away. -
Best description of Facebook ever and I'm paraphrasing, it's like hell, the equivalent of answering the door and 500 people are there all talking at once. To which my husband added: and they all think they're great. The author is so funny but then writes something absolutely devastating and heartbreaking. I do agree with Ms. Allen about Sean Connery as Bond and the Bonds that followed him, except Daniel Craig - he was pretty perfect and I have a great story about him a chatting with my friend as they "deplaned". Plus when Craig did that bit with Queen Elizabeth to open the London Olympics (even though there's so much cheating and doping and graft going on these days I hardly care about the Olympics any more) I thought I'd die. And one last Bond thought...Idris Elba. You're welcome.
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I honestly couldn’t finish it. A lot of this feels like it can be reduced to “old lady yells at clouds”. The titular essay is mostly complaining about how language has changed and she doesn’t like it, which is stupidly elitist. What really chapped my ass was the like about wanting Sean Connery to play Bind forever because the other actors who have played him “seem a little gay”...because there’s something wrong with being LGBTQ? Because the actors playing Bond have to be available for her personal sexual fantasies? Either way, gross. She’s got a way with words, but I’m not interested in reading someone complain about things from a place of profound privilege. Here’s something that really should stop: humble bragging about living in Manhattan.
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At first, it seemed this was a collection of light, funny columns about her life in general. She likes to eat, her house has some problems if she were to rent it out ala bed and breakfast, she can't remember stuff. But then, it picks up and goes deeper. She had a divorce and the bitterness of that resonates in her writing. She dealt with cancer and in one really moving essay wrote about wigs.
Overall, this is a great collection of writing that spans several emotions: Humorous, light, silly, brooding, reflective of life, hope, family, rebounding and other topics.
I had not heard of Jenny Allen before. This book was like finding money in a pair of pants you'd not worn before. A small treasure! -
This collection of essays views life through Jenny Allen's middle-aged lens. Taking on everything from attempting a craft project to escorting an aging father to the doctor to life after divorce, the author shares her humorous, "life will go on" attitude with readers. Ask the Answer Lady helps guide a newly divorced woman through her feelings about the new girlfriend. My Gathas are a riff on meditation verses with modern examples. Take My House Please is an accounting of an old house's aches and pains. The other 32 essays tackle other modern life surprises, woes, and idiosyncrasies in the author's wry, sometimes mocking, voice.
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This collection of short essays is a bit mystifying. There were a few, mainly memoir-type, very funny essays about the author's life but then there were pieces added in that were random and not humorous at all. There were a few, including an Elmer Fudd therapy session, that I skimmed over altogether. I really wish the whole book would have just been anecdotes from the author's life and she would have left out the more slapstick writing. I received this digital ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
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I wondered what a contemporary book considered funny and witty would be like. There were a few witty lines in the beginning, but mostly then it just started to sound rather negative and whiny. Sorry, Jenny Allen. I think you were trying to be honest, but it just didn't go over with me. Also, you would need to be a women of a certain age to get this book, which I am, but a younger person or a male would most likely not enjoy, I'm thinking.
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I expected more from this given that I randomly picked one ranting-story and it resonates with me.
Borrowed the book and only 30% of the stories had me nodding my head. The rest were written pretty much similar to a personal blog writing style ; it's better if you know the author and what's going on in her head so that you can follow better.
Disappointed.
