I'm currently reading "You with the sad eyes" by Christina Applegate. I'm only at chapter 4, but i have to keep putting the book down, because i get quite triggered by all her effortless good luck, something i've never known in my own life.
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She talks about having a giant crush on Duran Duran's John Taylor. Well, guess what? Some years later, she gets to star in a movie with him. As if that's normal.
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She writes in her diary about how she has a crush on some guy, but says he'll never like her back because she's "too ugly." 10 days later she writes in her diary how she's going out with him.
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She feels like she should be in the film about the Wonderland murders of Laurel Canyon, because she's from the area. She, of course, knows the director. Presto, your wish is my command. She gets handed a role.
It's very hard for me to read about someone's repeated successes and good luck. You just think "wow, my life is really, really shit." Yeah, I know, she was slapped with MS. Which is why I got the book. But again, I have to keep putting it down because I get upset being made to read about one victory after another after another with minimal effort. (her acting career was handed to her from the age of 3 months).
What do you do when you find books trigger you? Do you keep reading, or stop? She also has a way of tooting her own horn quite a bit – "my never ending great work ethic got me and everyone else through everything" when she never actually worked a real job
by Physical_Orchid3616
15 Comments
Christina Applegate suffered a lot of childhood and relationship trauma in her life. I would never describe her as having an easy life (even before MS).
Also acting is a real job. One that can actually be very demanding depending on what you’re doing.
Do you enjoy memoirs in general? This is a problem specific to that genre.
British celebrities are normally a bit more self effacing.
These people don’t have exceptional luck. They just don’t mention the people they know that actually helped them reach the heights they are at. They make it seem as if they had no help or lucked into things when that is never true for anyone whether they are a celebrity or not.
EDIT: to answer your question, you don’t have to read something that is causing you pain. Read something else!
If you don’t like it, don’t read it.
Honestly I can’t stand just about any memoir. Biographies of people who have actually done something on the other hand… love those.
I typically don’t like memoirs, either. Unless they can be self critical, I find them boring and uninteresting.
I don’t bother reading or finishing books that upset me. Life is too short for that. If it’s something that challenges my beliefs though, I will make an effort to finish it.
But also like reading about successful people or people achieving things easily don’t upset me lmao It’s like social media you just have to compartmentalise and be happy for the person, have faith in your own stars and move on.
In general, I like reading really happy books especially about idiots who keep falling into good luck despite their better efforts to blow up their life. Makes me feel that there’s always hope for a happy ending
It’s up to you. I loved Becoming by Michelle Obama until it got to the part where she said infertility was not a tragedy and then i DNF
It may not be a world tragedy but definitely can be a personal one and anyway it’s easy to say if you go on to have kids.
I still love Michelle and I think she meant that part to be uplifting but I found it hurtful.
You could read my memoir. But since I’m not so lucky, it’s a bit boring.
If I was to write a memoir about my own life, I would be less inclined to include the bad parts, such as dreams that didn’t come true or some of the messy steps to my success.
While I think some people are given a better hand in life than others, a memoir is essentially a glorified Instagram highlight reel.
I personally enjoy reading memoirs because I get to step into their POV, which isn’t something a biography can offer, even if the POV is a little skewed to make the author look better.
Im Glad my Mom Died. That one’ll fix it for ya.
There’s two ways to become an adult that plays pretend and dresses up for money.
1.) Weinstein route
2.) Nepotism
The entire concept of people that play dress up are worthy of praise is so bizarre. Politicians are the same.
Most celebrities aren’t extra talented compared to “normal” people. They are just normal people who got a shit load of luck and breaks. The only reason she has a memoir that people want to read is because of all her luck. So it sounds like you should not read memoirs of lucky people, unless you are ok hearing about luck.
it’s Christina Applegate. She’s arguably not even the most famous living Christina…
I don’t think you need to read her memoir if it’s that annoying.
It’s very difficult to hear about other people’s successes when we’re in the trenches.
I had to delete social media after I became a mom because people talking about their babies sleeping through the night and looking like they hadn’t gained a pound enraged me.
You don’t actually know how hard or easy it was for her to come by her successes. At the same time, maybe her life is much easier than yours. The fact that it’s triggering you is a good sign you need more support.
It’s okay to DNF. Or comeback later when you feel better.
It ends with pretty bad luck, if that helps.