Looking for some good and easy summer reading? Then pick up Jancee Dunn's quick-paced, humorous memoir, But Enough About Me...
I devoured the book in about a day and a half. And yes, when I got to the last page I wanted MORE. But better than that -- I wanted Jancee to be my BFF. What's not to like? She's a Jersey Girl (like me), who came of age in the 1980s (like me) who writes (like me) and who meets all these incredible celebrities (okay, not like me).
But that's what's most fun about Jancee's recollections as a writer for Rolling Stone magazine. She invites all us regular folks in as she shares her firsthand accounts of what it's like to interview surly, hungover rockstars (and avoid taking drugs offered) and how not to flip out when interviewing icons such as Madonna or Brad Pitt.
Yes, Jancee dishes some celebrity dirt (who knew Jennifer Beals was such a bee-atch?) but this isn't really a "tell-all tabloid" book. Jancee isn't getting revenge (not on celebrities, but maybe on a couple of boyfriends) through her memoirs. In fact, she's simply sharing a real-life fairy tale about a small-town girl from NJ who somehow found herself in the big leagues mingling with some pretty big stars.
What's most refreshing about Jancee's memoir is that it's so upbeat and witty (despite one dark turn as a hard-partying Rock Chick that almost ends badly but instead ends with Jancee re-declaring herself a "geek, with a healthy dose of Old Lady"). This is good news for me because I've read a lot of memoirs and I'm getting a tad bit tired of reading about wretched childhoods. I'm starting to suspect that EVERYONE with a memoir has been abused, neglected, or abandoned as a child (how depressing) and then struggles with inner demons for their entire adulthood before suddenly seeing the light.
Not so, for Jancee. In fact, her close and loving relationship with her own family makes up 50 percent of the memoir. And her recollections of a typical NJ family life are just as captivating as her tales of rock-and-roll debauchery because she's that good of a writer! What would have been boring recollections by another writer, is instead funny and refreshingly entertaining. I agree with Entertainment Weekly: Dunn is an "irresistible narrator."
Which is why I'd like to be friends with Jancee. We have so much in common. We both worked at Burger King in our pasts. We both saw The Hooters as our first concert-going experience. I too am a self-declared "geek" who owns a copy of Rick Springfield's Working Class Dog. We both have blogs on typepad. And on the first page of her memoir she quotes Emily Dickinson: "I'm nobody! Who are you?" This exact quote was on my blog for several weeks as part of a post in which I pondered my own place in the world of entertainment. It's like we share some cosmic NJ-writers/bloggers-connection.
Or maybe Jancee is just that good of a writer. In reality, Jancee and I don't have that much in common. I'm married with two kids and she's single (I opted for suburban NJ life over the glamorous Manhattan lifestyle). I didn't date a string of losers (thank GOD!) in my 20s, as I married my college sweetheart. I've met/worked with only a handful of celebrities -- but nobody in Madonna's or even Jennifer Beal's league.
The point is that Jancee writes in such a way that makes the reader feel that she is indeed a pal, a buddy, a confidante. She's the funny best friend that gets into wacky adventures and always has a crazy story to share. I'm not sure if Jancee is as warm and funny in real life as she is on the written page -- but I would like to believe she is. Because that would make the fairy tale complete for me.
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