sarahfonseca's reviews
343 reviews

I’m pretty sure sure I’m not the target audience for Lena Dunham’s debut book. Yet I’m really happy that I read this, if only because I was capable of drawing my own conclusions about passages which were taken extremely out of context and had become distorted by both social justice and conservative medias alike to accuse the author of sexual assault.

Funny enough, these nuanced passages concerning childhood weren’t the ones I found most “offensive.” On the contrary, they were some of the most well-written, earnest depictions of girlhood I’d seen in a highly-publicized memoir in a long time. With the exception of the last two essays (which deviated from the first-person structure of everything preceding them without warning—I enjoyed the listicles, however, because they were evenly spaced throughout the memoir).


Points of note: Killer illustration work by Joan Avillez

Indulgent, yearning but mostly theatrical, Zwerling's journals are a great portrait of 1950s Europe and New York through the eyes of a twentysomething woman. Passages cover the author's time as a translator, art model, and writer for the International Herald Review in Paris (later serving as the inspiration for Jean Seberg's character in "Breathless.") If you're not one for frank sexual adventures and references to D.H. Lawrence's naughtiest bits, this book might not be your cup of tea. Irene Fornes and Susan Sontag are frequently mentioned--if you've read the latter's journals from the 1950s and 60s, Abroad serves as an excellent companion piece to Reborn. Several really great photos of the three women are also included in the book.