Book Review: "Ten Steps To Nanette" By Hannah Gadsby

This is probably the first book review in the history of book reviews where this has been said: You really should watch the movie first. Well, really, it's not a movie; it's a stand-up special on Netflix called Nanette by Hannah Gadsby. 

And the reason you're being told to watch the stand-up special first is because Gadsby's book Ten Steps to Nanette: A Memoir Situation really builds upon the Nanette special. I think it lends to her style of storytelling that you have the end product first and then she decides to fill you in on the rest. 

Hannah Gadsby is an amazing storyteller. Her words and sentences are like ribbons and reeds being woven together in such a complex pattern that you enjoy her artistry along the way, and then, when the work is done, you see the full piece for what it is.

It is utterly stunning. 

So, for the uninitiated, what is to be expected of all this? Gadsby's work is not your typical comedy. In fact, calling it comedy at all is stretching a lot of bounds of categorizing her art. Her story is one of a lesbian born in Tasmania, Australia. Tasmania was the last legal bastion of codified bigotry against the LGBTQ+ community in Australia, being forced by the Supreme Court to decriminalize homosexuality in 1997. There are other struggles in her life, such as her adult diagnoses of autism and ADHD. But I'm not here to tell her life story, because she's done that for us. 

So far, I've told you to watch the movie first and that I'm not going to tell you Hannah's story. If I was reading this, I would say it was a pretty lousy review. But you are just going to have to trust me.

Hear the words straight from her. Go on her journey with her the way she wants it to unfold. I can't do that for here, and it would be a disservice to her story and her artistry for me to ruin your chance of experiencing it firsthand from Hannah herself. 

I'll just leave you with an excerpt from the book that, in my opinion, just about sums up what to expect from both the show and the memoir: 

The few months that followed the release of Nanette were amongst the strangest and most unsettling of my life. I went from relative obscurity to intense visibility in such a short period of time that I sustained spiritual whiplash. Ironically, all the chaos that followed my 'overnight success' is actually a lot funnier than the show itself. Like way, way funnier. But that is hardly surprising, given that on paper, Nanette is arguably the most deliberately miserable, unfunny hour of comedy ever made.

Ten Steps to Nanette: A Memoir Situation is available at all Jefferson County Library Cooperative members, including all Birmingham Public Library locations. It is also available as an eAuidobook through Libby. 

By J. Michael Coe | Library Assistant Ⅲ, North Birmingham Regional Branch Library and Inglenook Branch Library