Lena Dunham - 'Not that kind of girl' ???

[violet1986]

Has anyone read this? I neeeeed to talk to someone about how dire it is!!

Lena comes across as the most irritating, self indulgent, vain and unpleasant narrator I have ever encountered in a book... I bitterly regret spending money on this book and it is still bothering me, 3 weeks after I finished it!

I thought it would be an interesting and perhaps motivational tale of a young woman finding herself ... sort of along the lines of 'how to be a woman' by Caitlin Moran which I really enjoyed. Instead, Lena pontificates for hundreds of pages about ex boyfriends and past sexual encounters and talks about very little else.

It also REALLY bothered me how she made characters (or it seemed to me) quite identifiable to people who know them in real life, and accuses them of of a) rape (or at least a 'grey area' sexual encounter, which to me seems a wholly unfair accusation having read her account of the night), b) giving her HPV (which is impossible to trace back to a single individual as it can be passed on even with condom use! and she describes a quite colourful sex life before accusing this poor man of passing this on to her!) and c) a teacher of being a pedophile with little to no grounds for doing so.

Please someone tell me you have read this too and agree with me about what a truly unpleasant individual she must be.

If you haven't bought or read it, my advice is - don't.

[Onedropoflove]

I don't like watching Girls for the very same reason. Poor little angsty rich girls about a thousand miles away from anything I know.

[violet1986]

ah, I haven't seen Girls. Perhaps that would have given me the heads up I needed...

[Onedropoflove]

I can imagine the book would be just the same.

[Southeastdweller]

Doubt I'll bother. Lena likes to think of herself as the voice of her generation and enjoys banging on any bandwagon if it keeps her profile high, which I find very boring. I can't imagine her book being any good.

[IsabelleAdjani]

I HATED this book!!!! For some reason was totally repulsed by Lena, she came across as narcissistic, immature, vain and totally self-obsessed. She is also under the misguided impression that every thought she has is utter genius and of interest to others. I read the first few chapters and flicked through to the end and decided to give up on it. The passage on her sister made for very unpleasant reading, A better title for this would have been "Not that kind of girl: A young woman who has learnt absolutely fuck all".

[Lorelei353]

I have no intention of reading it but I'm so glad I'm not the only one who just doesn't get Lena Dunham. I watched the first few episodes of Girls and hated it. Maybe I'm just too old for it but I couldn't bear watching her awful 'relationship' with that absolute dick of a guy (Adam?).

Not surprised the book is rubbish. I know some right wing commentator in the US has accused her of sexually abusing her sister based on some passages in the book and while I think that sounds a bit strong, I was surprised at the openness of the extract I read about it.

[IsabelleAdjani]

I would be reluctant to say she molested her sister but the extract you mention made me feel very uncomfortable. I don't think the behaviour she displayed as a 7 yr old towards a 1 yr old was appropriate and more worryingly, her mother when made aware of her behaviour didn't challenge it or tell her it was inappropriate or wrong. That she actually thought it was ok or funny to write "Basically, anything a sexual predator might do to woo a small suburban girl, I was trying" to describe her behaviour towards her sister shows what an idiot she is and I am astounded that she has been surprised by the reaction to this. Can you imagine how people would react if it was a man or boy saying things like this about their relationship with a younger child?