The Book of Joan: Tales of Mirth, Mischief, and Manipulation
The Book of Joan: Tales of Mirth, Mischief, and Manipulation by Melissa Rivers
Publisher: Crown Archetype
Release Date: May 5, 2015
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Publisher’s Description:
Joan Rivers was known all over the world—from the Palace Theater to Buckingham Palace, from the bright lights of Las Vegas to the footlights of Broadway, from the days of talkies to hosting talk shows. But there was only one person who knew Joan intimately, one person who the authorities would call when she got a little out of hand. Her daughter and best friend, Melissa.
Joan and Melissa Rivers had one of the most celebrated mother-daughter relationships of all time. If you think Joan said some outrageous things to her audiences as a comedian, you won’t believe what she said and did in private. Her love for her daughter knew no bounds—or boundaries, apparently. (“Melissa, I acknowledge that you have boundaries. I just choose to not respect them.”) In The Book of Joan: Tales of Mirth, Mischief and Manipulation, Melissa shares stories (like when she was nine months old and her parents delivered her to Johnny Carson as a birthday gift), bon mots (“Missy, is there anything better than seeing a really good looking couple pushing a baby that looks like a Sasquatch who got caught in a house fire?”), and life lessons from growing up in the Rosenberg-Rivers household (“I can do tips and discounts and figure out the number of gay men in an audience to make it a good show. That’s all the math you’ll ever need.”). These were just the tip of the iceberg when it came to life in the family that Melissa describes as more Addams than Cleaver. And at the center of it all was a tiny blond force of nature.
In The Book of Joan: Tales of Mirth, Mischief and Manipulation, Melissa Rivers relates funny, poignant and irreverent observations, thoughts, and tales about the woman who raised her and is the reason she considers valium one of the four basic food groups.
This book is a series of essays about Joan and Melissa. Overall, they are funny and poignant. But oh my lord. Melissa Rivers is not funny. Her supposedly funny metaphors and similes fall flat – flat as a pancake. (See what I did there?) The other thing that made me uncomfortable was Melissa telling us which celebrities Joan personally didn’t like. It doesn’t seem classy and I don’t think Joan would have done that if she were alive. I mean sure she skewered people as part of her act but she never just came out and said, “I don’t like Ben Stiller because he doesn’t have good manners.”
Although I inwardly groaned at Melissa’s attempts at humor, I did enjoy learning what Joan Rivers was like a person, mother and grandma. I think Joan Rivers fans would enjoy this book.
(I received this book courtesy of the publisher.)
