The Last Black Unicorn

I've been wanting to read this book ever since I saw Haddish's interview on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah. This woman is HILARIOUS. Somehow I didn't realize she was in the movie Girls Night until I read about it in her book - I really do need to see that movie. That aside, this book was pretty great. It's written in her speaking style, so it's not technically correct grammar, but it SOUNDS right, which is more important in a memoir, in my opinion. It's supposed to show the author's personality, and this does.

I don't know that I'd put this on quite the same level as Trevor Noah's Born A Crime, or Jenny Lawson's Furiously Happy, but it's not far behind them. Haddish talks about her childhood in the foster system and then raised by her grandmother, her string of no-good boyfriends, and her abusive marriage. She's had a rough life, but somehow she's come out of it with a gift for comedy and a grounded personality.

Her swamp tour with Will Smith and Jada Pinkett-Smith is one of the most hilarious stories in the book, and one of the few that is purely funny. Most of them are underscored with a serious issue that make me feel a little bad for laughing at them, but Haddish laughs at them, so how can you not? It's an interesting conflict that leaves me with slightly mixed feelings about the book.

It's a pretty quick, easy, fun read, and if you like Tiffany Haddish, it definitely shows what she's gone through to get where she is now.

You can find all my reviews at Goddess in the Stacks.

It's a 3-star book, but Haddish elevates the audiobook to 4 stars. I have trouble paying attention to audiobook sometimes, but I was riveted and listened to this one straight through. Haddish is a great storyteller, with excellent rhythm and timing (thanks Quincy Jones!) I wish she'd talked more about her professional life. The memoir is episodic and heavily focused on her personal life. I'd like to learn more about how the tenacity and faith she highlights in these stories about her personal life helped her in her career. You get the impression that her personal life was falling apart while her career was on a slow but steady course upwards, and I would love to know more. Can't wait for her next memoir.