Wilson's bubbly personality comes through in these essays, and her show business experiences were interesting, but I often couldn't relate to her approach or experiences.
Casey Wilson, actress (Happy Endings), comedian (Saturday Night Live), and writer, shares essays and memories, breathlessly told in whirlwinds of enthusiasm, frustration, or puzzlement as she works through feelings, shares her own often-uncontrollable tendencies (eating most meals in bed and aiming to spend significant time in the bathtub; her serious sugar addiction; her reliance on psychics and various gurus for unorthodox life guidance), and relates her pivotal experiences in show business and in her personal life.
I enjoyed Wilson's performances in Happy Endings years ago, but when I began listening to the audiobook I didn't realize that the author was an actress from that show, and I had to do a quick search on the Internet to familiarize myself with who I was listening to.
My initial cluelessness is no reflection on Wilson's book, and I'm generally game to read memoirs by people I know nothing about. But The Wreckage of My Presence didn't resonate with me. Wilson is so outlandishly zany, so dramatic and passionate, and so habitually silly that I couldn't generally relate to her or her experiences.
She frequently focuses on her obsession with Real Housewives, the Kardashians, and other reality television and the lessons she learns from years of viewing these shows. Her experiences in television were interesting, and her account of coping with the loss of her mother and her fears about her son's development felt most real and affecting for me.
Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book?
If you like memoirs, you might try the books on some of these Greedy Reading Lists: