The Last Black Unicorn
2017 • 7 pages
Ratings29
Average rating3.8
15
Ratings29
Average rating3.8
"From stand-up comedian and actress Tiffany Haddish comes The Last Black Unicorn, a hilarious, edgy, and heart-wrenching collection of autobiographical essays that will leave you laughing through tears. Tiffany Haddish grew up in one of the poorest parts of South Central Los Angeles. Her mother wound up with a debilitating brain injury after surviving a car accident. Tiffany never fit in anywhere: not in the households she rotated through in the foster care system, and certainly not the nearly all white high school she had to ride the bus an hour to attend. As an illiterate ninth grader, Tiffany did everything she could to survive. After a multitude of jobs, she finally realized that she had talent in an area she never would have suspected: comedy. Tiffany faced the 'routine' hindrances of climbing the entertainment business ladder--but had the added obstacles of sex, race, and class in her way. But she got there. She's humble, grateful, down to earth, and funny as hell. She still cleans the toilet the way she was shown by a foster mom who worked as a maid, and she still rolls her joints the way one of her foster dads taught her. Tiffany can't avoid being funny: it's just who she is. But The Last Black Unicorn is so much more than a side-splittingly hilarious collection of essays--it's a memoir of the struggles of one woman who came from nothing and nowhere. A woman who was able to achieve her dreams by reveling in her pain and awkwardness, showing the world who she really is, and inspiring others through the power of laughter"--
Reviews with the most likes.
I've been wanting to read this book ever since I saw Haddish's interview on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah. This woman is HILARIOUS. Somehow I didn't realize she was in the movie Girls Night until I read about it in her book - I really do need to see that movie. That aside, this book was pretty great. It's written in her speaking style, so it's not technically correct grammar, but it SOUNDS right, which is more important in a memoir, in my opinion. It's supposed to show the author's personality, and this does.
I don't know that I'd put this on quite the same level as Trevor Noah's Born A Crime, or Jenny Lawson's Furiously Happy, but it's not far behind them. Haddish talks about her childhood in the foster system and then raised by her grandmother, her string of no-good boyfriends, and her abusive marriage. She's had a rough life, but somehow she's come out of it with a gift for comedy and a grounded personality.
Her swamp tour with Will Smith and Jada Pinkett-Smith is one of the most hilarious stories in the book, and one of the few that is purely funny. Most of them are underscored with a serious issue that make me feel a little bad for laughing at them, but Haddish laughs at them, so how can you not? It's an interesting conflict that leaves me with slightly mixed feelings about the book.
It's a pretty quick, easy, fun read, and if you like Tiffany Haddish, it definitely shows what she's gone through to get where she is now.
You can find all my reviews at Goddess in the Stacks.
3.5 She's hilarious and a fantastic comedian, but her bits don't translate into a cohesive story or narrative arc. Recommend the audio if you're reading because she narrates it herself and adds a few extra-book items. The first chapter was a bit hard to listen to because she's all over the place, but she finds the sweet spot after that. Her stories are funny and absolutely brutal and highlight her strength as a person and the work she's put into her career. Need to get copies for the library as we'll definitely have lots of readers for this!
After hearing Tiffany on Saturday Night Live and The Daily Show, I knew I had to check out her book. That same matter-of-fact honest comedy comes through in her writing and her story. I laughed out loud more than once while listening to her sometimes awkward (and sometimes downright sad) stories told to humor.
Raw and real at times but overall hilarious and amazing. Haddish is an incredible person and I'll forever be cheering her on–The Last Black Unicorn and powerful AF. ❤️
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67 booksThe publishing industry has struggled to embrace new voices. Many amazing authors have managed to get their voices out–overcoming all obstacles. What books stand out to you as your favorites by bla...
