‘Not that kind of girl’, Lena Dunham’s book is now out for the public. The work consists of a series of personal essays, mainly based on girlhood. The author claims to have been inspired by a book that Helen Gurley Brown wrote back in 1982, ‘Having it all’. Lena Dunham is the producer, creator and main character of the HBO TV-show ‘Girls’ which premiered in 2012. The show follows the lives of a twenty-something group of friends living in New York City. The show is based on Lena’s real-life experiences, such as the struggle of finding a boyfriend, a good job and also following her dream to become a writer.
Ms Dunham describes in her new book in a humorous way her fears, her doubts, her numerous talks with her therapist and intimate encounters with different boys. It’s noticeable that she has much in common with her TV-show character, Hannah. This is mostly reflected in the fact that she always feels the need to transpose her experiences into words. She understands that her concerns may be regarded as extravagances by less fortunate people. And so, the very talented author not only writes her book with precision, but she also has the ability to bring a note of nostalgia and wisdom to her self-portrait and the world she lives in.
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In the end, the small differences between Hannah and the author make it an even better book. Ms Dunham doesn’t want to be her generation’s voice as she does in her show. She is simply trying to be funny and hearty at the same time by writing her personal story with all the particularities and sometimes compromising details.