Little Weirds

by Jenny Slate

Overview

Step into Jenny Slate's wild imagination in this "magical" (Mindy Kaling), "delicious" (Amy Sedaris), and "poignant" (John Mulaney) New York Times bestseller about love, heartbreak, and being alive — "this book is something new and wonderful" (George Saunders).

You may "know" Jenny Slate from her Netflix special, Stage Fright, as the creator of Marcel the Shell, or as the star of "Obvious Child." But you don't really know Jenny Slate until you get bonked on the head by her absolutely singular writing style. To see the world through Jenny's eyes is to see it as though for the first time, shimmering with strangeness and possibility.

As she will remind you, we live on an ancient ball that rotates around a bigger ball made up of lights and gasses that are science gasses, not farts (don't be immature). Heartbreak, confusion, and misogyny stalk this blue-green sphere, yes, but it is also a place of wild delight and unconstrained vitality, a place where we can start living as soon as we are born, and we can be born at any time. In her dazzling, impossible-to-categorize debut, Jenny channels the pain and beauty of life in writing so fresh, so new, and so burstingly alive, we catch her vision like a fever and bring it back out into the bright day with us, where everything has changed.

One of Vanity Fair's Great Quarantine Reads.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780316485364
Publisher:	Little, Brown and Company
Publication date:	11/24/2020
Pages:	240
Sales rank:	25,205
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.10(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Jenny Slate is an actress, stand-up comedian, and the New York Times bestselling author of the children's book Marcel The Shell with Shoes On. She has been in many movies and TV shows and also plays many cartoon animals. Jenny is a graduate of Columbia University and has a young heart and an antique soul. She lives with her future husband in Massachusetts and California. 

Editorial Reviews

"Both vulnerable and moving, a party even non-party-goers might like to attend."—LIBRARY JOURNAL

"The stand-up comedian and actress dips into every nook and cranny of her mind to bring forth original, funny, tender, and above all, magical observations about life."—POPSUGAR

"Jenny Slate is a little weird (in a very good way). Her aptly named collection of personal essays, Little Weirds, gives readers a glimpse into her strangely funny and tender, magically delicious mind...Slate's writing style is deeply personal, yet her prose is crisp to the taste."—AMAZON, Editor's Choice

"Little Weirds isn't the typical comedian's memoir, but it's the rare work of art that's somehow both delightfully bizarre and totally universal."—BUST MAGAZINE

From the Publisher

06/24/2019

In an impossible-to-categorize adult debut, actor and comedian Slate (Marcel the Shell with Shoes On, coauthor) meditates on topics profound and ephemeral with wonder and stark honesty. The unaffectedly whimsical, direct tone is established quickly, with the opening piece’s assertion that “I am actually a homemade Parisian Croissant,” followed by the dictate, “Pair me with jam. Treasure me for my layers and layers of fragility and richness.” Something of a personal narrative does emerge; she describes her childhood in hilarious pieces such as “Fast Bad Baby,” about the troubles she inflicted on her mother by being “so rowdy and speedy.” She ruminates on growing up in a haunted house in Massachusetts, and on leaving it knowing the ghost of her former self would always live there. She admits to debilitating self-doubt (and explains how she moved past it) and celebrates female friendships and self-care. The most moving piece, “I Died: Bronze Tree,” the only work of (overt) fiction, unfolds from the perspective of a recently deceased old woman, whose death follows shortly after her husband’s. Here, and elsewhere, Slate offers an intimate window into not only her mind, but her heart. The result is a dazzling, sensory gift for poetry lovers and fans of Slate’s distinctly odd, but deeply charming humor. Agent: Claudia Ballard, William Morris Endeavor. (Nov.)

Publishers Weekly

11/01/2019

With this collection of short essays, Slate (coauthored with Dean Fleischer-Camp, "Marcel the Shell" picture books) paints a self-portrait of, as she tells herself, "all the little weirds that make up who you are." The resulting amalgam of prose comprises doubt and exuberance, examining self-concept, gender roles, and everything that makes the author a unique human. The overall portrait depicts Slate opening herself up to life, drinking in as much of it as possible, and relating fully to a world with all its joys, disappointments, and everything in between. Those familiar with Slate's previous works will recognize her slightly askew perception and delightful way of reframing the familiar. Here she has full rein with language, and her style is less precise than fulsome, throwing lots of things at the wall and seeing what sticks. Her subject is her whole self but fragmented, in her words, "a weird party for a woman who has returned from grief," both vulnerable and moving, a party even non-partygoers might like to attend. VERDICT This volume mixes the oddball self-examination of Jenny Lawson with moments of poetic insight. Recommended for lovers of fizzy memoirs.—Audrey Snowden, Milford Town Lib., MA

Library Journal

2019-10-08
Tough times spur a popular stand-up comedian and actor to dive deep into her own inimitable psyche.

In Slate's (Marcel the Shell With Shoes On: Things About Me, 2011) intriguing inner world, raindrops are "wet water bloops" that fall unexpectedly from the sky, and brassieres are "cotton cup bags" that respectable ladies are obliged to don before heading out to dinner. The use of deconstructed language allows the author to move beyond the banal and replace it with something that more closely approximates her singular experience of being alive. Whether joyous or sad, Slate's personal journey hasn't always been lighthearted. Indeed, the author feels moved to describe herself as "dying" on multiple occasions throughout her life. She is concerned with many other things, as well, including the nature of lovelorn ghosts and the ethereal goodness of dogs. Underneath the gauzy, shimmering scaffolding, however, is an all-too-universal story about heartbreak, depression, and a failed marriage: "One man was gone from my life just about the time that another man pig-snorted his way into the presidency….I didn't know how or why to give myself small pleasures." Through it all, she has found solace in a circle of good friends and the redemptive powers of a neat house and an incredible garden. Slate seems to fit so comfortably inside the poetic realms of her impressive imagination that she has no need to abandon them, not even when she is rebuking the pernicious ugliness of male patriarchy, another element that has heavily impacted her life. In one particularly powerful interlude, the author achieves biblical grandeur, envisioning herself ripping out the ancient evil root and stem. "I take one last good look at that poison pod and I just go ahead and fling it," she writes. "I fling that pod back into the gloomy section of outer space that is for bad gods with sickly and sour spirits."

A uniquely talented writer and performer offers up an unexpectedly uncommon approach to autobiographical writing.

Kirkus Reviews