I'm Just a Person

My Year of Death, Cancer and Epiphany

De: Tig Notaro

Narrado por: Tig Notaro

In the span of four months in 2012, Tig Notaro was hospitalized for a debilitating intestinal disease called C. diff, her mother unexpectedly died, she went through a breakup, and then she was diagnosed with bilateral breast cancer.

Hit with this devastating barrage, Tig took her grief onstage. Days after receiving her cancer diagnosis, she broke new comedic ground, opening an unvarnished set with the words, 'Good evening. Hello. I have cancer. How are you? Hi, how are you? Is everybody having a good time? I have cancer.' The set instantly went viral and was ultimately released as Tig's sophomore album, Live, which sold 100,000 units in just six weeks and was later nominated for a Grammy.

Now the wildly popular star takes stock of that no good, very bad year - a difficult yet astonishing period in which tragedy turned into absurdity and despair transformed into joy. An inspired combination of the deadpan silliness of her comedy and the openhearted vulnerability that has emerged in the wake of that dire time, I'm Just a Person is a moving and often hilarious look at this very brave, very funny woman's journey into the darkness and her thrilling return from it.

©2016 Pan Macmillan Publishers Ltd. (P)2016 Pan Macmillan Publishers Ltd.

Tig Notaro, serious

Disclaimer: Tig Notaro is an excellent comedian, but this book is not funny.

It's something else. A heartfelt account of her bad recent years, in which she got sick and her mother died and she got breast cancer. Tig really loved her mother and talks about it at length.

To be honest, I think the book got better toward the end when she expanded to talk about her complicated relationships with her stepfather and biological father which we don't get details about earlier.

Ultimately, I'm Just a Person is about family. About Tig Notaro's family that she grew up with, and about the new family she was growing at the time of the writing. Now we know she is happily married with kids, healthy, and seems totally confident all the time after the mammectomy and virally joking about the cancer. It is worth knowing how hard it was for her to get there, and how she truly felt despite all the comedy...