4.5 Stars. Recommended for: Fans of Irby’s previous work, anyone in a reading slump, someone who could use a good belly laugh.

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Quarantine has plopped me firmly in the middle of a reading slump.

At the beginning of 2020, pre-social distancing and when I still had a daily commute that allowed me to tear through books at lightning speed, I was finishing novels nearly once a week. Since mid-March, however, I have barely picked up a book. 

While reading for me is typically a source of escapism, this particular situation has been too overwhelming to truly allow me the headspace to pay attention to a narrative. When attempting to read, I would instead find myself distracted by my phone, reading comments from Facebook Physicians (JK) and other apocalyptic news sources. I just couldn’t focus enough to know what was going on in the book. Instead, I’d give up my futile attempt at reading and would turn on mindless YouTube videos that allowed me some reprieve from my own head.

Fast forward to the end of March, when I had the pleasant surprise of receiving my pre-ordered copy of Samantha Irby’s Wow, No Thank You right on time. Long story short- Samantha Irby has helped to cure my Reader’s Block.

I first became acquainted with Irby through her previous work We Are Never Meeting in Real Life. I read a lot of nonfiction essays because they have, in my late 20s, become my most favorite literary form. I enjoy the opportunity for social and cultural critique, and it has been one of the ways that I have attempted to push beyond my own worldview and begin to understand the lives of those with whom I do not have many overlapping shared experiences. 

As a result of this fascination with creative nonfiction and my distraction by global affairs, Irby’s collection presented the exact sweet spot necessary to hold my attention. The essays in her volume do not ask us to look away from our lives but rather to look more closely, with humor, insight, and wit that are of course entertaining, but also quite the lesson in empathy.

For one thing, Irby (in all of her work) is hilarious. It’s not often that I find myself actually laughing out loud at the books I read but with her writing, it’s just different. Irby’s voice is so unique and authentic that you can’t help, even if you’ve never heard her speak out loud, but to read one of her essays and know that it is unmistakably hers. Each essay feels as though you’re sitting in conversation with the author, as though she is telling you one-on-one about her thoughts and experiences.

What’s inherent to Irby’s work is the subtle and consistent emphasis on the intersection of identities: race, sexuality, age, ability. While it is not Irby’s job to educate others about her existence as a queer Black woman, her honest depictions cast a larger-than-life shadow that serve a dual purpose of both illuminating and captivating. For readers that have situated themselves firmly within the White cannon, Irby’s work serves as an entryway into the triggers required for White readers to both acknowledge the necessity of and begin the work towards enacting anti-oppressive behaviors. 

While We Are Never Meeting in Real Life is a near-perfect collection in my opinion, Wow, No Thank You didn’t quite live up to its predecessor’s standards. I do believe that this is because much of the new volume focuses on Irby’s marriage and existence as a step-mother. The age range that she covers in We Are Never Meeting in Real Life simply resonated with me on a much more personal level given its glimpse into the late 20s-early 30s that I find myself currently navigating. I would be interested to revisit Wow, No Thank You once I’ve reached my 40s to determine if her nuanced observations reach out to me more deeply.

Regardless, Irby is the storyteller that quarantine needs but does not in any way deserve. She keeps even heavy conversations light and is genuinely funny in a way that doesn’t seem forced or contrived in the slightest. In a way, I’m not at all surprised that this is the book that helped me to get over my social distancing slump. I owe Irby a great deal for that, and will be sure to continue to read anything she publishes in the future. 

Overall, I highly recommend Wow, No Thank You and all of Irby’s previous work, including her first collection, Meaty. You can sign up for newsletters on her website, https://bitchesgottaeat.substack.com/. If you’re into Instagram, you can follow her regularly @BitchesGottaEat.

Support your local indie bookstore and purchase Wow, No Thank You from one of these retailers: https://www.indiebound.org/.

You can also get a signed copy from BookBugKalamazoo.

As a note, I did read the volume but Irby narrates the audiobook, which I can’t personally recommend but have had recommended to me.