PERFORMING ARTS

I Shouldn’t Be Telling You This: (But I’m Going To Anyway)

Hanover Square: Harlequin. Jun. 2024. 336p. ISBN 9781335455079. $29.99. MEMOIR
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Comedian and Emmy Award–nominated TV writer Devantez has spent plenty of time dissecting celebrity-penned memoirs on her podcast, Glamorous Trash. Now, in presenting her own, she offers up a self-aware series of essays. Many center on the women in Devantez’s life: her mother, godmother, best friends, former friends, idols, and rivals. Some detail the messy absurdities of her upbringing, the conflicts within her family and other relationships, and her long road hammering out a career in comedy. There are humorous parts, of course, but plenty of raw emotion as well. The opening and closing chapters are of particular note; the initial drafts recounted her traumatic experience of domestic violence and stalking, but she learned that, for legal reasons, she could not include the content. Rather than fully cut the material, however, she’s redacted specific details and left hints of the story.
VERDICT Energetic and revealing, this title will surely please Devantez’s listeners and fans. Aficionados of tragicomic, gossip-tinged memoirs will like it too.
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