Turns out I'm fine by Judith Lucy, reviewed by Honor Newman 2023

 

In this tongue in cheek autobiography Judith Lucy explores all angles of why she might be shit with men.

Delving deep into her childhood family dynamics she wonders if her dad being an alcoholic may have had something to do with it. The whole book is tinged with a sort of reversed misogyny (funny there’s really no equivalent word for man hater) in which she’s convinced that men have no respect for her and generally mistreat her due to their patriarchal attitudes, not seeing until right near the end of the book that it could be anything to do with her extreme drinking and lack of self- respect

Around the age of 50 she decides that maybe binge drinking, drug taking and throwing herself at men might not be the answer to what's 6 x 7 and takes up yoga and charity work, being surprised that these activities bring a much deeper sense of fulfillment than smoking dope. She also attempts to explore her repressed sexuality by attending a cuddle party and getting her vagina replicated in clay by an artist – interesting choices.

The highlight of her life so far has been swimming with a whale which does sound pretty fucking epic.

What the books lacks mainly is the delivery that her stand up comedy has, which is part of why her live performances are so good, she just has that star performer quality and you know she’s laughing at herself so you do too. This doesn’t translate so well into text format unfortunately.

I admire her ability to air all her dirty laundry and turn it into humour even if it is does make me cringe at times. its clearly a way to cope with her pain (which is the best use of comedy imo), and I love how she laughs heartily at womens’ issues that aren’t spoken about or laughed about enough. I hope she heals her relationships with men and sees how loving and supportive they can be going forward, rather that simply people that block her path even if they aren’t her target audience. (too triggered!).

She’s also adopted and (oh I wont’ give away what happens there – spoiler alert!)

Thanks for being so candid Judith Lucy, the more we can laugh at life, the better it is!#JudithLucy