A Woman Trapped in a Woman's Body: Tales from a Life of Cringe

by Lauren Weedman

"Lauren Weedman is irresistible" says The New Yorker of her performance in The Five-Year Engagement. From The Daily Show to Horny Patty in HBO's Hung, Weedman is a girl gone wild, a performer who tells true, hilarious, and embarassing stories she actually lived through. In A Woman Trapped in A Woman's Body, Weedman riffs about comical and cringe-worthy experiences like her time at The Daily Show, where she developed an entirely one-sided infaturation with Jon Stewart, or the time when she stomped on the sacred agreement between couples and read her boyfriend’s with disastrous results. Weedman's stories are excessive, dangerously self-deprecating, and darkly funny. Like when she confesses to having lied about being raped when she was in college and the havoc that comes from one itty bitty moment of feeling too too sorry for herself. With "relentlessly candid introspection and ferocious wit" (Los Angeles Times), Lauren Weedman serves up hilarious of essays about what NOT to do as a fully realized, functional adult. The writer and performer of one-woman show like Bust, Wreckage, and If Ornaments Had Lips, Lauren Weedman is one of the brightest comedic actresses at work today.

Genres: Humor, Memoir, Nonfiction, Essays, Short Stories, Biography

256 pages, Paperback

First published September 4, 2007

Reviews

[Courtney Payne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Umm. Please read this book. You will laugh out loud, walk away from the book on several occasions because you are so uncomfortable, you will thank God many times that you are not as whack as you thought you might be before you started reading about Lauren's life. Truthfully, she is not really whack. She just knows how to tell a great story---like secretly reading her boyfriend's journal (my favorite chapter), never being able to have a normal conversation with Jon Stewart while working at The Daily Show. As a matter of fact everything that comes out of her mouth while in the presence of Jon will make your skin crawl.
She is in the same category as Amy Sedaris, Sarah Silverman and Janine Garofalo.
You will find yourself wanting more. Ever since I finished reading the book, I have been searching the Internet reading everything that I can by or about Lauren Weedman.

[Jackie "the Librarian" · Rating 1 out of 5]

I wanted to like this book - I liked Weedman on The Daily Show. But this book is just too desperate in its attempts to show how pathetic Lauren truly is - that's funny, right?
And I guess, for me, the constipation/coffee enema chapter was just too intimate, too soon. You need to work up to that kind of personal sharing!

[Ariel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Let me tell you people: Lauren is the funny. Like David Sedaris but even more neurotic, like a noodle bowl full of buttery tangled self-awareness, self-deprecation, and self-loathing. Lauren mines the creases of her life for the nasty comedic shmegma that collects between the rolls of adoption, divorce, failures, successes, ambitions, insecurities, cities, culture, family. It’s like watching a snake eat its own tail, slurring as its mouth fills with more and more of itself but winking at the same time in a way that says, “If I stop eating myself, I might die of starvation. Keep watching, folks!”

I loved this book. It is definitely honest to god LOL material -- not like "oh tee hee, I chortled under my breath" but "OH MY GOD I BUSTED OUT LAUGHING AND TEARS STARTED RUNNING DOWN MY FACE."

[Malbadeen · Rating 4 out of 5]

what i hate about this book is the cover and the title.
what i love about this book is the content.
last week i was camping and my sister asked if i had a book she could read. i handed her this one and she had the same reaction to the title/cover. fortunately, she trusted her older/wiser sister and had a go at it. later that night i kept waking up to her laughing out loud as she read.
On another day I might give this book 5 stars but today I'm grumpy from lack of sleep and so I'm dwelling on the last 2 stories that didn't make me laugh enough and end a little too sweetly.
BUT in general I haven't laughed as hard since discovering Sedaris. HOLD ON! I'm not saying she's like Sedaris, I'm just saying they are both funny, funny, funny.

[Kurt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Move over Sarah Silverman, Margaret Cho, Amy Sedaris, Tina Fey, et al--this woman is funnier, and has more heart too. This is classic "comedy of embarrassment," but it's so much more than that.

[P · Rating 3 out of 5]

She is funny, bit annoying and a lil all over the place but I did LOL so it was worth the 4 hr listen.

[Evan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A quick hilarious read. Lots of cringe, uncomfortable humor so it’s not for everyone

[HeavyReader · Rating 2 out of 5]

I know this book is supposed to be funny because the word "humor" is printed on the back cover, right next to the word "memoir." And some parts of it did make me chuckle, sometimes even out loud. But the first two chapters (or stories or essays or whatever they are properly called), are so painful, so pathetic, so not at all funny, that I almost quick reading after only 20 or so pages.

I just hope Lauren Weedman was exaggerating her life in hopes of getting laughs, that things weren't really as bad as she made them out to be. Sometimes tales of people more awkward than I make me feel better about myself, but I just feel sorry for Lauren and feel relieved that I don't have to deal with her and her insecurities and constant need for attention on a regular basis.

And to think, I learned about this book on GoodReads.

[TheTyee.ca]

Lauren Weedman is beautiful. And funny. It says so right in the blurbs on the cover of her new book, A Woman Trapped in A Woman's Body (Tales From A Life of Cringe). Funny and pretty and beautiful and hilarious. Open up the book and have a read and you'll see how and why more than anything, she's worked hard to be those two things. A memoir that begins with a tale of how she was fired from her job as a correspondent on the wildly popular Daily Show with Jon Stewart, and then works backwards, detailing in short story form Weedman's pathological need for acceptance and approval. A Woman Trapped In a Woman's Body reveals plenty of painful truths about...

read more ...
http://thetyee.ca/Books/2007/09/28/We...

[Heather · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book made me laugh out loud several times (ask Emily) and there were several things I just had to share with someone (ask Emily). And even when I wasn't laughing out loud, the moments of 'What in the world is she thinking?' or 'I can't believe she actually said that!' are plentiful. Laura Weedman is just plain funny...and crazy...and adopted. I know, that last one sort of threw you, right? Yeah, that's why I gave it four stars because it just felt like she threw some stuff (albeit pretty funny stuff) in there at the end about her being adopted. And trying to meet her birth mom. How else might she have ended it? Don't know, just seemed kind of ho hum at the end. But the first 92% of the book is hilarious! Yeah, 92%--I did the math :)

[Holly Lee · Rating 3 out of 5]

You might have seen Lauren Weedman on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. Blink and you could have missed her though. She successfully freaked everyone in the office out, and was thus booted from her dream job.

Lauren Weedman tells all about this, and much more in her debut novel "A Woman Trapped in a Woman's Body (Tales From a Life of Cringe)". The stories are offbeat and quite funny.

Her preparation for the Emmy's takes her to places no woman should ever go. Coffee enema anyone? She shows up in a thrift store gown and manages to humiliate herself.

The book is a quick read, perfect for a flight. The stories are short and entertaining. I look forward to more from Lauren Weedman.

If you like Chelsea Handler or Sloane Crosley or even David Sedaris, you will like Lauren Weedman.

[Jenny · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow. I am hesitant whenever starting a humorous book, the fear that it won't live up to my expectations is so great and pressing it can tinge the entire reading experience. One chapter in, I still had my guard up. Yes, she's funny, but if she annoys Jon Stewart, well, that's got to be a clue.
HOWEVER... This book was fantastic. Very funny and the stinging sweet bits are not obviously sentimental at all. I read this one WAY too fast, which means for months or possibly years, I will be searching for its equal, sure to be let down by those that follow. This book proved to me that sometimes I can walk & read at the same time, without falling down... Sometimes.
It's not for everyone, but it is for me.

[Matthew Budman · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Woman Trapped… is never less than amusing, albeit (as the subtitle promises) often cringeworthy, and often surprisingly moving—though Lauren Weedman is so funny and charming in person, reading her work or just talking, that on the page her prose can't help but feel a little flat. As a book, it's a bit shapeless, meaning that it works better as an essay collection than a coherent narrative, but that just means it's ideal for reading a few pages at a time. Looking forward to diving into her follow-up, Miss Fortune: Fresh Perspectives on Having It All From Someone Who Is Not Okay!

[Coffeeboss · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've enjoyed Lauren Weedman's one-woman shows here in Seattle, so it is no suprise that I really enjoyed her book. It is really a loose collection of essays, not really linear in a timeline, but touching upon wildly different subjects (her time in Amsterdam, her post-divorce dating, the searching for her adoptive mother when she was a teen, her short stint on The Daily Show). Her self-effacing humor will make you chuckle and wince, and at times guffaw until you choke (the Emmy coffee-enema story actually made my stomach cramp from laughter). Other parts are surprisingly touching and sad. Hopefully she'll bring a new show here soon.

[Erin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed this, but I enjoy any story written by someone so shameless and nonchalant about the embarrassing things some of us women go through. The first half of the book is hysterical - her trip to the Emmy's is by far the best part - the coffee enema before, then her dress that smells like a rotting carcass that she insists everyone take a whiff of...she's a girl after my own heart!
The second half of the book is more real, a little less "laugh out loud" funny, but still an excellent story.

[Camille · Rating 5 out of 5]

I ran into this book at an old bookstore in Las Cruses NM. It quickly sparked my interest and I finished it in 3 days. I had never heard of Lauren Weedman before but now Im interested in reading more of her books. She is very funny and keeps you very entertained with all her crazy stories and experiences. I love dry humor and suttle humor and she gives you a lot of both. I only hope she continues to write and publish more books. I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to try a book with a variety of witty stories to keep you reading more and wanting a second dose of Lauren Weedman!

[GeekChick · Rating 1 out of 5]

What a disappointment. I bought this book because Weedman was really funny on Daily Show. The book, however, portrays her as completely neurotic. In the bad way. In the way that left me thinking, what a freak. I read the whole thing, hoping there would be some sort of point to the whole thing, but there wasn't. It wasn't even in chronological order, which made it difficult to track.

In short, not even worth the title of "brain candy."

[Maynalg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quite a hoot- I laughed out loud many times! Its a breeze to get through cuz she narrates her neuroses' so comically. Its also great to have around when you're having a bad day, cranky PMS episodes, feeling sorry for yourself, etc. Cuz noone tells it better than her! Her self-deprecating memoirs instantly make you feel like you've got nothing to fret about. Just follow suit and dont take it all soooo seriously!

[Sue · Rating 3 out of 5]

I bought the book from Lauren at our local PrideFest and she warned me that the first chapters were weak. She was correct. The pieces about her experiences in Amsterdam set this apart from all of the other (yawn) wacky-girl-with-wacky-family essay compilations I've read of late. The cringe aspect is full frontal and so intoxicating. The Daily Show sections only reinforced my appreciation that I don't have cable. Overall, a good read for a summer evening.

[Meghan · Rating 2 out of 5]

I picked up this book because it chronicles Lauren Weedman's time as a correspondent on The Daily Show, but it was not what I expected at all. I felt sorry for Jon Stewart and everyone else who worked with her there, for having to deal with her strange neuroticisms and inappropriate behaviors. It made me shudder, not laugh.

[Shari · Rating 2 out of 5]

Disappointing. I was hoping I could label this book “hilarious” but it doesn’t deserve that label. Lauren Weedman was funny on VH1 whenever I saw her so I assumed that this book would be equally funny – it was not. Weedman comes across as very whiny, needy, & annoying. There were a few funny parts/stories but overall I was under-whelmed with this book.

[Carrie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lauren Weedman is freaking hilarious and heart-breakingly honest. This book is laugh-out loud funny throughout. I enjoyed all of it, but a particular highlight was the chapters about her time spent in Amsterdam. The feeling she describes of suddenly loving everything you hated about home once you are living in a foreign country is sadly familiar.

[Beli_grrl · Rating 4 out of 5]

She's funny in a very dark, over-the-top way. Not for the easily offended. I wished there was a little more meat to the stories, which were very sketchy. I've read other reviews that say she's better live than in print. I bet her live delivery of the anecdotes fleshes them out. This was a good escapist summer read-- funny stories about the sordid sex life of an intelligent D-list celebrity.

[Rivkah · Rating 1 out of 5]

Another book club read that was supposed to be funny, but was really depressing. The author's jokes about her own life don't produce laughs, but saddness for her lack of security. I got the exact same feeling from this book as I did when a friend in college joked about both of his parents dying in a car accident...it just wasn't funny.

[Darlene · Rating 1 out of 5]

Ugh. I couldn't get past the first 20 pages of the book. So annoying. Everyone knows someone who always has to be the center of attention and does/says things which make everyone else cringe. That's how I felt about this author and book.

[daisyduQue · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sometimes, in reading a book, you realize that there are people out there who are much, much crazier than you. This was one of those books. It was painful at times, but made me feel better about myself. That's something, right?

[Laura Seagraves · Rating 3 out of 5]

I worked with Lauren in 2000 on her play Amsterdam, so it was interesting to read this book. Lauren is always funny, and this book is no exception, but it is sad realizing how much she hides behind her humor.

[Ciara · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked up this book solely because of the rave reviews from Dan Savage and Jill Soloway on the cover; I later discovered that Lauren Weedman is that annoying, not-so-funny comic on Best Week Ever. Her writing is so, so much better than her stand-up. A great, quick, not too intense read.

[Leslie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I laughed out loud a lot although I've seen her read from this book and it's even funnier to hear her say the words. I also think she reminds me of people I have met who I can't be around for very long - exhausting. Safe in book form though. Highly enjoyable even.

[Nette · Rating 3 out of 5]

A funny book, but the author scares me. She seems like the kind of person you'd edge away from at a party as she gets shriekier and more dramatic and eventully barfs into the spinach dip. Just a matter of taste -- apparently I prefer my humor essayists to be shy and dorky.