One Twentysomething's (Mostly Failed) Attempts at Adulthood
May 15, 2013
Debut comedic memoir based on the 20-something author's popular blog. In 2010, Nugent graduated from college with a degree in creative writing, "diploma in one hand, margarita in the other." Despite an exhaustive job search, she found herself unemployed and broke. Facing impending student-loan payments, she opted to move back to her parents' home. Nugent writes with a sardonic sense of humor, rife with self-deprecation, about the trials, financial and otherwise, of being an educated, jobless, single woman in her early 20s. Almost all of her stories involve alcohol, and early on, Nugent even encourages readers to drink while reading her book. In a list of tips on how to save money, she suggests foregoing coffee in favor of using "good old-fashioned fear of the unknown to keep yourself awake." After a few months, she successfully launched herself out of the nest and into a walk-up apartment in Brooklyn, where she eventually returned to working in retail. Her forays into "adulthood" included hosting a party featuring a game of strip poker and a few tame, vaguely described experiments with online dating. With limited outlets to publish her writing as a freelancer, she started her personal blog, The Frenemy, as a platform to vent her frustrations and humorous autobiographical experiences. Her memoir reads like a blog: a series of loosely structured essays and rants that work on their own as conversational pieces but collectively lack overall cohesion. Nugent's voice comes across as loyal and tough, and her sense of humor and authenticity will appeal to readers going through related chapters in their own post-college lives. This book, like one of its myriad cocktails, is dry, dirty and surprisingly refreshing.
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June 1, 2013
Poor Nugent. Reality has hit herand hard. Armed with a degree from Emerson College (and thousands in unpaid loans), the snarky twentysomething must now figure out how to make her way in the world. It certainly doesn't help matters that she's moved back in with her parents. Seized by panic attacks, Nugent spends her days looking for meaningful work and a place to live. Along the way, she joins an online-dating service, but the match-dot.coms of the world aren't typically inclined toward the offbeat, so she ends up with potential suitors who are hopelessly dull. Nugent, creator of the comedy blog The Frenemy, is committed to helping quirky girls feel good about themselves. This wry offering is at its best when she focuses on her own struggles to that end, including a longtime obsession to be thin. She likes to eat too much, Nugent says: So yes, I have a tummy. I don't always love it. Sometimes I really hate it. But I am going to acknowledge it, and I'm going to deal with it. (Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)