Publishers Weekly
05/30/2016
For four months in 2012, stand-up comedian Notaro descended into a decidedly unfunny period of her life: she survived a bout with the life-threatening bacterial infection, Clostridium difficile, only to find out that her mother had died; not long after she buried her mother, she was diagnosed with breast cancer, and underwent a double mastectomy. In this deeply captivating memoir, Notaro opens her raw wounds, candidly sharing her most intimate thoughts about life before and after her illnesses. Notaro chronicles her early struggles with her mother and stepfather, and her departure from her home in Houston to make it on her own in Los Angeles. She discovers her gift for comedy, performing night after night at open mikes, and eventually lands an audition for a show that the comic Sarah Silverman has written just for Notaro. In a moment of uncertainty, she panics and exclaims "I'll go on, I can't go on," a theme that echoes throughout the book: "When you're struggling to secure the role of yourself, you do wonder whether you know who you are. Up until that audition, I felt confident I did." After her illnesses, Notaro slowly returns to the stage, gaining a large following when she introduces her new routine with the words: "Hello. Good evening. Hello. I have cancer, how are you?" By January 2013, Notaro feels reborn and ready to set out on a new life, and these days she's happier than ever. Notaro's searingly honest and sometimes humorous memoir will wrench readers' hearts and inspire them in equal measure. (June)
From the Publisher
Notaro intermingles laugh-out-loud moments from her childhood with her crazy mother and stepfather and sweet romantic times as an adult. Throughout her brief work, the author is frank, at times humorous, and anything but melodramatic.” — Kirkus Reviews
“Notaro’s thrilling, candid, and hilarious memoir is a provocative and convincing rallying cry to seize the day.” — Booklist
“I’m Just a Person will make you laugh, or cry, or both.” — Marie Claire
“This written record of her grief isn’t just a retread. It’s supplemental, yes, but also transcendental...That’s not to say the book isn’t funny- there’s still plenty of levity, but it frequently gives way to important revelations.” — AV Club
“Notaro’s story is funny not because it’s true (although it is), but because it’s told by the world-class stand-up with wit and vulnerability.” — O magazine
“Although there are diverting comic touches (most in the ironic vein), the book’s chief virtue is Notaro’s absolute candor in describing how these devastating setbacks wracked both her body and soul.” -Bookpage — BookPage
“As with the best comedy [I’m Just a Person] is not just about fighting pain with laughter - it’s about love, strength, and the very stuff that makes us human.” — Out Magazine
“Comedian Tig Notaro takes pain and successfully converts it into laughs in I’m Just a Person… It’s an intriguing and inspiring look at one woman’s way of pressing on.” — Bustle
“Anyone who can write a sharply funny-and bravely optimistic-story about losing her mother, going through a break up, and being diagnosed with breast cancer all in the span of four months is an absolute heroine in our book. All hail, Tig Notaro!” — Glamour
“The book is heartbreaking, and brilliant, and funny and everything you are… it’s fantastic.” — Ellen DeGeneres
Ellen DeGeneres
The book is heartbreaking, and brilliant, and funny and everything you are… it’s fantastic.
AV Club
This written record of her grief isn’t just a retread. It’s supplemental, yes, but also transcendental...That’s not to say the book isn’t funny- there’s still plenty of levity, but it frequently gives way to important revelations.
Booklist
Notaro’s thrilling, candid, and hilarious memoir is a provocative and convincing rallying cry to seize the day.
Marie Claire
I’m Just a Person will make you laugh, or cry, or both.
Bustle
Comedian Tig Notaro takes pain and successfully converts it into laughs in I’m Just a Person… It’s an intriguing and inspiring look at one woman’s way of pressing on.
O magazine
Notaro’s story is funny not because it’s true (although it is), but because it’s told by the world-class stand-up with wit and vulnerability.
BookPage
Although there are diverting comic touches (most in the ironic vein), the book’s chief virtue is Notaro’s absolute candor in describing how these devastating setbacks wracked both her body and soul.” -Bookpage
Out Magazine
As with the best comedy [I’m Just a Person] is not just about fighting pain with laughter - it’s about love, strength, and the very stuff that makes us human.
Glamour
Anyone who can write a sharply funny-and bravely optimistic-story about losing her mother, going through a break up, and being diagnosed with breast cancer all in the span of four months is an absolute heroine in our book. All hail, Tig Notaro!
Booklist
Notaro’s thrilling, candid, and hilarious memoir is a provocative and convincing rallying cry to seize the day.
Library Journal
01/01/2016
Over four fraught months in 2012, stand-up comic Notaro was hospitalized for a debilitating intestinal disease, lost her mother, broke up with her partner, and received a bilateral breast cancer diagnosis. She famously dealt with her grief by creating a blunt and funny comedy set. Closing speaker at the Public Library Association Meeting in April 2016.
FEBRUARY 2017 - AudioFile
Comedian Tig Notaro regales listeners with her very bad year in her emblematic understated voice. Her low-key delivery is just right for the series of horrible turns she describes: her mother's end stage of life as a comatose patient, her own battle with a nearly deadly bacterial infection, only to then be diagnosed with breast cancer—all while coping with the downs (and some ups) of her romantic life, family life, and career. Notaro's dry approach to this horrible raft of events keeps the listener both engaged and cheering for a women who seemingly doesn't do self-pity and chooses to keep moving ahead in life. F.M.R.G. © AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine
Kirkus Reviews
2016-03-30
A stand-up comic and writer's year from hell.When Notaro received antibiotics for a case of pneumonia, she didn't know she was embarking on months of health and family disasters. The drugs gave her a difficult and debilitating intestinal disease called C. diff, which caused her to lose more than 20 pounds and experience terrible abdominal pain. In the same time period, she lost her mother to an unexpected home accident. Then, after months of delay, she finally decided to examine the lump in her breast that she'd detected two years earlier, only to be told she had breast cancer in both breasts. At this extremely low point in her life, Notaro walked on stage and delivered brand-new material, opening with lines about her cancer. Once the audience realized she wasn't joking, she writes, it was then "her job as a comedian to get every silenced, stunned person back to laughing….I made it my mission to yank everyone out of the dark hole by delivering a lighter joke or asking why they were taking this so hard—which caused the laughter that we all needed." She received a standing ovation, and her career skyrocketed even as she faced a double mastectomy, the ongoing grief of her mother's passing, and a broken romance. As she unfolds the intimate moments of her personal annus horribilis, Notaro intermingles laugh-out-loud moments from her childhood with her crazy mother and stepfather and sweet romantic times as an adult. Throughout her brief work, the author is frank, at times humorous, and anything but melodramatic. She shows readers the full spectrum of her emotional and physical conditions, her vulnerability, and ultimately her strength as she enters a happier and healthier stage in her life. Forthright and private moments are revealed as a stand-up comedian uses her gift of creating laughter to overcome personal and physical disasters.
