Since I started working in a bookstore in Chicago, people have been telling me that I need to read Samantha Irby’s Meaty and, while I want to do that so badly, it is really hard to motivate myself to read something that I don’t have a copy of already or easy access to since my shelves are covered in more books that I can possibly read, all of them books that I want to read immediately. So when a co-worker handed me the galley for Irby’s new book We Are Never Meeting in Real Life, I felt a little bit like I had won the lottery.
This is a great collection of essays. Incredibly varied in both topics and form, each essay brought forth new ideas and a new way of reading. Some essay collections feel like the author is following a formula for how each piece should be written but that was most definitely not the case here. I looked forward to each essay, wondering what new and interesting thing she was going to talk about.
I also enjoyed this book because even though Irby’s experiences are completely unique to her, I saw her dealing with some of the same insecurities and such that I deal with. It’s always refreshing to see someone dealing with the things that pull me down and see that they are able to make themselves move past it and actually laugh about them.
I’m excited for this collection to come out so that the wider world can get to know Irby and her amazing sense of humor.
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