I Might Regret This

October 15, 2018
In this often hilarious collection of personal essays, Jacobson, who stars in Comedy Central’s Broad City, provides witty, self-deprecating recollections of her life as she drives cross-country from New York City to Los Angeles. Alongside her travels, Jacobson recounts events in her life: as she begins her trip in New York City, she recalls her first relationship and subsequent breakup with a woman; relaxing in Santa Fe, she contemplates her path to success, from an improv member of the Upright Citizens Brigade to creator of Broad City. Jacobson toggles between thoughtful reflection (“Why does the sight of the person you’re in love with, wearing your clothes, feel so deeply good?” she wonders while driving to Memphis) and lighthearted asides (“At what point are ankles considered cankles? Is there a chart to reference?”). Those familiar with Jacobson will appreciate the details that link her real life to her character on the screen, including her affinity for Bed Bath & Beyond coupons and her frequent FaceTime calls with friend and costar Ilana Glazer. However, readers less familiar with her TV work may feel that the narrative rambles. Fans will delight in the peek into Jacobson’s creative process and be touched by the strikingly raw emotions she shares throughout.

June 1, 2019

The Broad City cocreator embarks upon a cross-country solo road trip to clear her head after a breakup and takes the opportunity to ruminate on relationships, family, loss, and work. It's an exercise in purposeful vulnerability, as Jacobson puts all her insecurities front and center and invites the reader along as she examines them in meticulous but loving detail. (The story is punctuated by "sleep studies" as the author attempts to fall asleep in hotel rooms nationwide, invaded by a parade of intrusive non sequiturs.) A mid-book exploration of Jacobson's origin story as a comedy writer and performer, and the tale of her partnership with Ilana Glazer and the start of Broad City will be highlights for fans of the show. It's hard to imagine a narrator besides Jacobson reading this very personal audio title; she gives the material the intimate and idiosyncratic narration it needs. VERDICT Recommended for fans of comedic memoirs such as Jenny Lawson's Let's Pretend This Never Happened or H. Jon Benjamin's Failure Is an Option.--Jason Puckett, Georgia State Univ. Lib., Atlanta

Copyright 2019 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

The actor, producer, and series creator turns in a series of sketches, some brilliant and some pedestrian, chronicling episodes in her life to date.With her friend Ilana Glazer--"a bacon egg and cheese with Ilana, anywhere, anytime," she writes in an essay on bagels, this one decidedly nonkosher--Jacobson (Carry This Book, 2016, etc.) crafted the hilarious, edgy Comedy Central series Broad City. As she notes in passing, it morphed into something more than just a TV show: "It's become a visual diagram of sorts in which I track my own life, where I've been and where I'm going...a reproduction of my reality." Many of the pieces are set in far-flung places between the twin poles of Los Angeles and New York--in Santa Fe, say, which Jacobson worries isn't really real, and Marfa, Texas, which is "so cute." A common theme throughout the book is ceiling-studying insomnia as the author restlessly travels from town to town; another is wrestling to the point of fretfulness with mundane and big-picture worries alike: "Maybe I'm more Jewish than I think?" As she drives from Santa Fe to Kanab, Utah, she ponders such things as how often she ought to be changing her shoelaces, death and dying, aging, love, missing out on key events, and "if scrunchies are back and why." Some of Jacobson's observations are too casually tossed-off--"Starbucks might be more known for their bathrooms than their coffee"; "Do you think Ross-and-Rachel situations are happening all over the place?"--but many of the sketches are reminiscent of Nora Ephron in their sharp-edged goofiness, as when she concludes a piece on failed love with this: "I did what any intelligent, responsible, sane person would do. I got a dog."Charting the charms and obstacles in the everyday, Jacobson's book wobbles here and there, but it's mostly a pleasure to read.

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