October 1, 2020
Dark humor is pushed to its limits in this debut collection of essays. David, the 26-year-old co-creator of the web series "Eighty-Sixed" and daughter of Larry David, mines her anxiety and depression for material in essays that often lean more disconcertingly sad than funny. Several of the pieces are prefaced by excerpts from a 2007 neuropsychological evaluation of the author, and the collection features three sets of "Tweets I Would Tweet If I Weren't Morally Opposed to Twitter," which include "Ways I like to pass time: Think of all the ways I can kill myself without leaving the room I'm currently in," and "The human body is amazing; I can't believe I can have this level of internal anguish and not have imploded yet." While some readers may find these observations sarcastically amusing, others may genuinely worry about the author. Other essays are clever: "I have urban dictionary open and I'm ready to sext"; "What if I just gave in and made my Instagram bio 'Larry David's daughter.' " In the longest piece, David explores a high-profile breakup, documenting her ex's failings as a "cripplingly codependent" individual given to blackouts and self-harm and recording her sorrow during a post-breakup safari trip to South Africa with her family. "I wanted to self-induce a coma and not wake up for years, but even years didn't seem like it would be enough time," she writes. In another selection, the author makes a list of things showing that "God Is Definitely Real," which include puppies and kittens, fruit, coffee, mint, and "alcohol/weed." The majority of David's commentary is more banal than inventive: After getting a cat to ease her anxiety, she got anxious about the cat's inevitable death. She reports that social media can be mind-numbing. She shares her unhappiness about being "almost pretty" and her "self-loathing" about realizing that "my taste in men is straight-up trash." The few amusing bits aren't worth enough to slog through the rest.
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October 15, 2020
Seinfeld and Curb Your Enthusiasm creator Larry David has made a career out of turning neuroses into humor, and his eldest daughter, Cazzie, follows in his footsteps in her first essay collection. Everything in life is a source of anxiety and potential embarrassment for 26-year-old David, from her relationship with her younger sister, Romy, to a night out at a club to her physical appearance to relationships (or lack thereof) with guys. She loathes Twitter but details things she'd share if only she weren't morally opposed to the social media platform. (She does have 277,000 Instagram followers.) She becomes obsessed with home security, living in dread of the possibility of a violent break-in. Even getting a cat proves to be a source of great distress for David when the cat gets out and goes missing for several days. Though David's privilege (which she readily acknowledges) is frequently evident, her frankness about her struggles with anxiety and depression will make many who suffer from the same conditions feel less alone. With a show in development for Amazon, David will be a draw.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)