Sneak Peek at Lena Dunham’s Book
By Anne Cohen June 2, 2014
During a panel at the Book Expo America — held at the Jacob Javits center this weekend— Lena Dunham shared a sneak peek from her upcoming book, “Not That Kind of Girl.”
On stage with Alan Cumming, Martin Short, and Cólm Toibín, Dunham admitted that she loosely based her essays on the mother-of-all-memoirs/advice/general commiserator guide, Helen Gurley Brown’s “Having It All.”
Our friends at The Cut have the passage, taken from the book’s introduction:
And if I can take what I’ve learned to make one menial job easier for you, prevent you from having the kind of sex where you feel like you must keep your sneakers on in case you want to run away during the act, then every misstep of mine was worthwhile. I’m already predicting my future shame in thinking I had anything to offer you, but also my future glory in having stopped you from trying an expensive juice cleanse, or thinking that it was your fault when the person that you’re dating suddenly backs away because they’re intimidated by the clarity of your personal mission here on Earth.
“Not That Kind of Girl” hits bookstores in September.
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a gift today!
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Dive In
Most Popular
- 1
Fast Forward Ye debuts ‘Heil Hitler’ music video that includes a sample of a Hitler speech
- 2
Opinion It looks like Israel totally underestimated Trump
- 3
Culture Cardinals are Catholic, not Jewish — so why do they all wear yarmulkes?
- 4
Fast Forward Student suspended for ‘F— the Jews’ video defends himself on antisemitic podcast
In Case You Missed It
-
Culture Should Diaspora Jews be buried in Israel? A rabbi responds
-
Fast Forward In first Sunday address, Pope Leo XIV calls for ceasefire in Gaza, release of hostages
-
Fast Forward Huckabee denies rift between Netanyahu and Trump as US actions in Middle East appear to leave out Israel
-
Fast Forward Federal security grants to synagogues are resuming after two-month Trump freeze
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
Republish This Story
Please read before republishing
We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag in Google search
See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.
To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.