Tag Archives: essays

The Wreckage of my Presence by Casey Wilson Book Review

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Book Description

Casey Wilson has a lot on her mind and she isn’t afraid to share. In this dazzling collection of essays, skillfully constructed and brimming with emotion, she shares her thoughts on the joys and vagaries of modern-day womanhood and motherhood, introduces the not-quite-typical family that made her who she is, and persuasively argues that lowbrow pop culture is the perfect lens through which to understand human nature.

Whether she’s extolling the virtues of eating in bed, processing the humiliation over her father’s late in life perm, or exploring her pathological need to be liked, Casey is witty, candid, and full of poignant and funny surprises. Humorous dives into her obsessions and areas of personal expertise—Scientology and self-help, nice guys, reality television shows—are matched by touching meditations on female friendship, grief, motherhood, and identity. 

Reading The Wreckage of My Presence is like spending time with a close friend—a deeply passionate, full-tilt, joyous, excessive, compulsive, shameless, hungry-for-it-all, loyal, cheerleading friend. A friend who is ready for any big feeling that comes her way and isn’t afraid to embrace it.

Review

Thoughts and Themes: I like reading collections of essays especially by people who I am not familiar with as well as on audio. I find these really interesting when I don’t know the person since I don’t have any expectations when I go into the book. This book read a lot like a memoir and I really enjoyed each of the essays and Casey’s thoughts on several of the topics that she addresses.

Some of the essays in this book were filler pieces but those fit in quite well and I still found those easy to get through. As for the other pieces of this book, there were moments in which I was laughing and then there were moments in which I was tearing up. Something else that I like about the collection of essays that this one does well is the way it can easily go from one topic to the next at the end of the essay without requiring a transition.

I really liked how Casey discusses different topics, both serious and simple in the same manner. I liked how she managed to insert humor in all of the essays including ones that you could tell were more painful to write and read.

Author Information

Casey Wilson is an actress, writer, director and podcaster. She can be seen in Apple TV’s upcoming limited series The Shrink Next Door, starring alongside Will Ferrell and Paul Rudd and in season three of Showtime’s Black Monday. She was recently featured in the HBO comedy Mrs. Fletcher, opposite Kathryn Hahn. Casey was a featured player on Saturday Night Live for two seasons and a series regular on the sitcoms Marry Me and the critically acclaimed Happy Endings. Casey’s recent television credits include Atypical, Tig Notaro’s Amazon series One Mississippi, Curb Your Enthusiasm, and Black-ish. Film credits include Gone Girl, The Disaster Artist, Always Be My Maybe and Julie and Julia.

Alongside her longtime collaborator, June Diane Raphael, Wilson co-wrote and co-stars in the movie Bride Wars as well as the movie Ass Backwards, which premiered at Sundance.

Together with Danielle Schneider, Casey co-hosts the cult favorite podcast, Bitch Sesh, which was nominated for a Critic’s Choice Award in 2019.

Casey’s directorial debut, Daddio, which she also co-wrote and starred in, premiered at TIFF and South by Southwest in 2019.

Survival of the Thickest: Essays by Michelle Buteau Book Review

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Author Information

NEW YORK, NEW YORK – NOVEMBER 10: Michelle Buteau attends the 2019 Glamour Women Of The Year Summit at Alice Tully Hall on November 10, 2019 in New York City. (Photo by Astrid Stawiarz/Getty Images for Glamour)

Michelle Buteau was born on July 24, 1977 in Hamilton Township, New Jersey, USA. She is an actress and writer, known for Always Be My Maybe (2019), Happiest Season (2020) and Isn’t It Romantic (2019). She has been married to Gijs van der Most since July 31, 2010. They have two children.

Book Description

If you’ve watched television or movies in the past year, you’ve seen Michelle Buteau. With scene-stealing roles in Always Be My Maybe, First Wives Club, Someone Great, Russian Doll, and Tales of the City; a reality TV show and breakthrough stand-up specials, including her headlining show Welcome to Buteaupia on Netflix, and two podcasts (Late Night Whenever and Adulting), Michelle’s star is on the rise. You’d be forgiven for thinking the road to success—or adulthood or financial stability or self-acceptance or marriage or motherhood—has been easy; but you’d be wrong.

Now, in Survival of the Thickest, Michelle reflects on growing up Caribbean, Catholic, and thick in New Jersey, going to college in Miami (where everyone smells like pineapple), her many friendship and dating disasters, working as a newsroom editor during 9/11, getting started in standup opening for male strippers, marrying into her husband’s Dutch family, IVF and surrogacy, motherhood, chosen family, and what it feels like to have a full heart, tight jeans, and stardom finally in her grasp.

Review

Thank you to Libro.fm for the advanced listening copy of this book in exchange for my review.

Thoughts and Themes: This review is a little different from my others because this book is different from what I usually read. For non-fiction books there really is no commenting on characters because there is none especially in a memoir. I love every memoir by a comedian that I have read to this date because they have the humor in each portion of their memoir, even in the moments that are meant to be sad.

I love how this book is separated into different essays that talk about different portions and aspects of Michelle’s life. I really enjoy reading memoirs from comedians when I don’t know them because the memoir tends to make me want to watch their acts. I only got through two of the essays and am already loving it and can’t wait to listen to the whole thing. I’m so interested in hearing more of this book and learning more about her through this book.

There are so many moments that I was just laughing or having to pause because my mom walked past and there was some inappropriate language. I don’t mind that but I don’t want my mom to question my reading choices, lol. I want to comment on each essay that is included in this book but then this review would go on forever.

I love that Michelle talks about the real things and doesn’t sugar coat anything. I really like her essay “Survival of the Thickest ” and its commentary on what we tell Big girls. I liked how she talks about what it is like to have a larger body as a child and how she was treated. She doesn’t go easy on this topic and she lays out her feelings right on those pages. I love how she talks about the shops that make her feel like worthy. I could go on and on on the relatability of this chapter.

There are so many other essays in this book that I really enjoy, I really liked the commentary that she made on the Catholic church. I related so much to this and loved what her stance was and how she kept her friends a part of the whole ceremony even if her family would’ve preferred otherwise.

Something that I think people may have issues with is that she brings her humor to even the hardest moments of her life. I think when reading you need to understand that this is the way she is comfortable with sharing this very intimate parts of herself with you as the reader. I was very appreciative of the fact that she was willing to share these moments with us.