I don’t think that to tell you that after reading Amy Schumer’s collection of personal essays The Girl with the Lower Tattoo that the author is not shy would be too surprising. She is, after all, apparently nude on the cover and her comedy style is not one for the shy and retiring.
However it has been, at times, misunderstood. Even in Amy’s note to her readers she mentions being asked to write articles in the past on topics such as “how to find a man. Or how to keep a man. Or how to rub a guy’s taint at the right time. I haven’t figured out how to do any of that stuff.” Now of course this may be writerly exaggeration, but it’s pretty revealing that just because she is known to be frank and talk about sexual subjects and call her vulva her pussy on TV does not mean Amy has ‘the wisdom of the taint’ – yet editors seem to have cast her as such because they fail to see, or find it uncomfortable to see, the rest of the woman that is Amy Schumer.
But when I say this comedian isn’t shy I mean this comedian has cracked how to be both vulnerable and strong. Amy uses episodes from her life – such as losing her virginity without consent and the confusion this rape caused – as teaching moments. Which is not to say this is in fact the little didactic book of feminism. Instead by just using plain frankness (and the odd statistic) Amy is able to aim this book not just at other child free, unmarried 35 year old women, but parents, teenagers (uh, late teens maybe), older and younger adult readers not by putting them in her place, but often reflecting in that clear manner that only hindsight can bring.
Amy addresses subjects such as being ‘new money’ (or, if you’re old money ‘nouveau riche’), sharing a bed and occasionally clam chowder with her mother, her parents separation, her father’s MS, her abusive relationships all with a similar attitude that successfully explain her social anatomy without a tiresome self-psychoanalysis.
This book is what a selection of personal essays and letters should be, witty, sometimes casual, sometimes achingly sad but always entertaining. This rich, unashamed and slightly strange book should be on your shelf if you have ever wanted to be inside Amy Schumer’s head.
Amy Schumer The Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo is out now
