Lisa P. Neeld Reviews “My Fair Lazy” by Jen Lancaster

So I recently spent the afternoon with my best girlfriend. We are so alike, it’s amazing and our fashion sense is, well, impeccable. We had some wine, tried out a new ethnic restaurant, told tales of our latest adventures and laughed a lot. Oh wait, that’s not what I did, but it sure felt like it. I was reading Jen Lancaster’s latest memoir, My Fair Lazy.

After a near catastrophe during an interview with her literary idol Candace Bushnell when she doesn’t know who Baudelaire is, Lancaster realizes that maybe she should broaden her cultural horizons along the lines of Eliza Doolittle. She’s convinced this is the very thing that could stand in the way of them becoming best friends, as well as all the other famous people she meets. I mean, how many times can a Real World reference elicit blank stares at a party before you realize you have to do something? What follows is a riotous ride as she sets out on what she calls her “Jennaissance.”

From author parties to modern dance performances to theatre to world cuisine, every experience is related in a unique, casual writing style that draws you in like a conspiratorial conversation with a good friend and keeps you there, totally content. She describes going to a small theatre performance where the setting is so intimate that even a stomach growl would interfere with the actors’ lines. When she writes about the man next to her having a whistle in one of his nostrils, I knew we were kindred spirits. How can anyone be expected to concentrate with that going on?

Her train-of-thought monologue during a tortuous massage was beyond hilarious. I especially related to thoughts that she should never be allowed to talk. Ever. When she described hearing herself go on and on and seeing the blank looks on people’s faces but hearing the words keep coming anyway even though she knew she should stop and why wasn’t she — look at them, they’re horrified or, worse, bored, I roared with laughter. And I was happy that someone else felt this way about herself. (See? We could so totally be best friends.)

Lancaster uses a footnote format to elaborate and comment about her text. At first, I found it disconcerting, but somewhere along the way I got used to pausing, and loved checking out down below to see what else she had to say. I don’t recommend reading this book in public. I giggled so much during the first pages I had to keep apologizing to everyone around me who thought I was eavesdropping. Or just plain crazy. To say I was sad when I finished reading this book is an understatement. My Fair Lazy is the fifth in Lancaster’s series of best-selling memoirs. I’ve read Pretty in Plaid and fully intend to read the rest. Who doesn’t love spending time with a good friend?

This post originally appeared on my former blog, StyleSubstanceSoul.