Midwest Besties
The pop culture podcast for the rest of us.
TV, Books, Reality, Movies, Celeb Gossip, and More.
Midwest Besties
FLYOVER DEEPDIVE - Famesick by Lena Dunham
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
In this Flyover Deep Dive, the besties unpack Famesick by Lena Dunham. In her memoir, Lena gets into it all: skyrocketing to fame with Girls, her deeply dysfunctional friendship with Jenni Konner, Adam Driver (spoiler: apparently he really is just Adam IRL), and her six-year relationship with Jack Antonoff. Lena’s story is always set against the backdrop of her chronic illness–suffering from near-constant pain, endometriosis flares, surgeries, and her mental health. She gets into her complicated family dynamics, putting her work before her health at any cost, and overcoming drug addiction.
I'm Lauren and I'm Emily. And we're Midwest besties. All right, welcome everybody. Welcome to our flyover deep dive on FameSick, a memoir by Lena Dunham.
SPEAKER_02Um, so I'm gonna read a little description really quickly. In this rowdy Frank reflection on illness, fame, sex, and everything in between, the remarkable mind behind the hit series Girls, and the best-selling author of Not That Kind of Girl asks whether fulfilling her creative ambitions has been worth the pain.
SPEAKER_03Oh, that was a perfect description.
SPEAKER_02So Emily and I both read this. I just finished it yesterday. Absolutely. And I listened to it all the way. She narrated, which was so good.
SPEAKER_03She's such a good narrator. I did do half the hybrid, half because I got the physical.
SPEAKER_02You're so funny with your like with how you hybrid, listen, and read.
SPEAKER_03I don't know why I like to do it.
SPEAKER_02No, I love it. I love it.
SPEAKER_03Because now I'm like, well, now I want to sit, like I literally at one point on Saturday, like I did my like, you know, my chores, and then I'm like, okay, well, now I'm gonna stop listening to it, and now I'm gonna pick it up. And physically read it.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. I love it. Um initial thoughts.
SPEAKER_03I liked it. Um, it's obviously not a super fun romp to read.
SPEAKER_02No.
SPEAKER_03Um I it's also not, I feel like the um promotion for it didn't match. Yeah, correct me if I'm wrong. Because I also maybe wasn't noticing it. I mean, I do follow her on so when I say that her promotion on Instagram, it definitely was like take you behind the scenes of being on girls. And it is not that at all. No, it is very much, but then if you read the synopsis or the back of the book or you know, what what what's actually being said about the book is that it is her, it's fame sick. It is about her becoming famous and dealing with chronic illness. Yeah. And that is what this book is about. Yes.
SPEAKER_02With a little bit of girls mixed in there, yes, and just like what we know her for, yeah. Mixed in.
SPEAKER_03Um, having said that though, she is such a brilliant writer. She is such a writer. A voice of a generation.
SPEAKER_01I don't want to freak you out, but I think that I may be the voice of my generation. Or at least a voice of a generation.
SPEAKER_03That I enjoyed it all the way through, and I can't wait for her to keep writing. Yeah. Because what I will say as an overview is that uh Lena Dunham is getting better with age.
SPEAKER_02I totally agree with that. Yeah. I really enjoyed it. I love listening to it. Um, she's a great, she is just, like you said, such a good writer, has such a way of like I also just I'm always amazed when I listen or read memoirs. I'm like, I can't remember this stuff, but I think she was like a prolific journaler. Yeah. So she could go back and she had like accounts of things to like help her and guide her. Um, I just really enjoyed it. And I really had to, I loved girls. Like I watched girls. I was a little bit engaged with Lena Denham in that time frame. And then it got too crazy for me, and I really just like disengaged. And I was like, I'm not gonna pay attention to her because she's like so she was a lot, she was too much, one what one might say.
SPEAKER_03100%.
SPEAKER_02Um even she would say that. She did say that. Um, and so I, you know, I never like hated her. I was just like, she would do certain things, and I was like, well, that's fucking crazy. And then I would like move on with my day.
SPEAKER_03It was really funny because I was also a fan of girls. We are we are 38 years old. Yeah. Uh we were literally, I think, drilled 24 when girls came out. Yeah. We were literally the age of those girls. Like when that episode, the series finale ended with her like learning how to latch, I was learning how to latch. Like that is so much beautiful. I know how much that show mirrored my 20s. Yeah. Having said that though, my 20s did not.
SPEAKER_02My 20s did not look like that at all.
SPEAKER_03But there were just, and that's what I loved about. Those those elements, those feelings, it's themes, those themes. Yes, that could resonate.
SPEAKER_02Of becoming, of like figuring.
SPEAKER_03So beautifully said. Yes.
SPEAKER_02You know, and just like that looks different, but I think it feels the same for a lot of people. Oh my God. Am I tear.
SPEAKER_01Am I the voice of a generation?
SPEAKER_03You're the voice of my generation.
SPEAKER_01Or at least a voice of a generation.
SPEAKER_02Um, and so I this this book didn't make me I'm going to rewatch girls. Like tomorrow I'm gonna start a rewatch of girls.
SPEAKER_03I'm not quite there because now I feel like I would be less um patient watching these like dumb little idiots. Oh my god.
SPEAKER_02Um it'll be a needlepoint show. Like I cannot give it my attention and it'll be it'll it will be uh sprinkled. Yes. You know, I cannot, I don't think I could do a full bid.
SPEAKER_03Like it would make you feel sick.
SPEAKER_02But it is so fucking funny. Like it's so fucking funny.
SPEAKER_03And the acting in it is obviously amazing. Um and I will rewatch it. I just don't know if I'm quite there yet.
SPEAKER_02Fair. Um, but going back to the book, so it really starts out with Did you watch Tiny Furniture? No. I did. So I've seen Tiny Furniture, which was really how she like became got her deal with girls. Yes. So she did this like very, very low budget film, Tiny Furniture, and she submitted it to a lot of film festivals. Sundance Sundance, and she won the um, whatever like the main prizes.
SPEAKER_03It was like the independent film prize. And I read somewhere that like this prize does like you get huge opportunities. And she did. Yeah, I mean, it it it catapults you. I mean, she went from just like being an indie filmmaker, like being on sets, kind of just like grinding it out. She was so young. To literally getting a call from Jed Apatow to be like, hey, write an HBO pilot.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. That got greenlit pretty much immediately. Immediately. And act in it, direct and act in it.
SPEAKER_03I think this is just like such a profound story of like the goose that lays the golden egg is defective.
SPEAKER_02When she talks about that, it was really sad and really true because she kind of makes this point. So, okay, so you know, we are learning about, we're learning about her, about her rise to fame. And then we start she starts to talk about her health issues, of which, like, I knew she had endometriosis. She has talked about it in the past. I knew she had uh ailers uh EDS, that um genetic disease, because that was like more of a recent thing. Yeah, um, I did not know just how unwell she was. Like truly, when we say like chronically ill, I mean debilitatingly ill.
SPEAKER_03And we knew she had OCD, really severe because she explored that in girls. Um but it was almost right off the bat, like even in writing season one, she had a pretty severe emotional breakdown. Yeah. Um, where she claimed she dissociated disassociated for days at a time. It's just so crazy to me. Like this like great funny art that she was creating when behind the scenes she was almost constantly battling some kind of chronic illness, stomachache, horrible periods, constantly having cysts like explode.
SPEAKER_02Era, yeah, going to doctors, going to ERs, um, getting IVs, like having just so many issues. Yeah. And that really is like the framework for this book is like her being sick and still doing like, but it's also like it's a really hard read as a 38-year-old woman who like I feel like I'm in a good place in my life where like I have boundaries and I oh my god, like I take care of myself, you know, like not I'm not like my body is a temple, but like if I'm sick, I'm sick, you know, like in the way that she did not listen to her body. And she says this in the book. This is not me criticizing her. Um, you know, didn't listen to her body and pushed through and medicated in ways that were totally unhealthy, was seeing shitty doctors, and a lot of this like wasn't her fault either. Like she was very, I think, victimized by like healthcare and by doctors who diminished women's pain and doctors who were misinformed. And um, it it was really a hard read in that perspective for me.
SPEAKER_03A lot of the readers uh ha were probably Lena Dunham fans in the 2010s. Um, just to reiterate how booked and busy this bitch was. Oh my god. Like, I think when she says in the book, like taking a month off, like to do nothing, like she did not take a month off in that in that eight years that were everywhere. She was everywhere. Yeah. I mean, we're talking like Lenny Letter, but then also Random House had in her own imprint. Like, had a podcast, had a newsletter, had a TV show, had a deal, had this deal, had that deal. And that's not even all the constant op eds she wrote, constant articles she was writing, constant interviews she was giving. Like she was working nonstop when she wasn't literally on the floor in pain.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah. It's actually insane that she was able to do any of it when she talks about how sick she was. Yeah. It's actually crazy. Yeah. Um, and so a lot of what she talks about as well are like her relationships. So she talks about her relationship with Adam Driver. I think that was like a lot of poll quotes, but I feel like he got a real a pretty good.
SPEAKER_03I guess for me, I didn't realize that he just was Adam from Girls.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, 100%.
SPEAKER_03Um, and he was just extraordinarily unlikable. Yeah. Just like she tells the story about like he just like didn't talk to her like before and after scenes in Shout Out to my cousin Joni. We were talking about this, where like a lot of um Lena's like critics or criticism of Lena is that she does talk out of like both sides of her mouth, where like she can be someone who like speaks up for women, but then she'll just like tell the story about how like they didn't have an intimacy coordinator, and Adam really like tossled her around to the point where she like felt really like she he didn't do any of the things like the fact that they they they blocked a love scene, yeah, and then when they hit action, he just did whatever the fuck he wanted.
SPEAKER_02It was crazy to me when she talked about that that they did not have an intimacy coordinator, and then oh they just didn't exist back then.
SPEAKER_03I know that's sick, and then when they hit cut, she was like, Wow, that made me feel really uncomfortable, but it's good.
SPEAKER_02So I just like we pushed it forward and we we knew we would do we had this agreement that we would do whatever it took to make it good. And no, you decided you were going to compromise yourself for this, and that is fucking awful. Yeah, that makes me so sad for you that you felt that's what you had to do.
SPEAKER_03Uh-huh.
SPEAKER_02Um, and that is a theme I think we see with her where she again and again does again. Yeah, like she does not, she is constantly betraying herself, you know, and it's just really sad. Like, I I I don't know, like my heart just like broke for this girl.
SPEAKER_03This is the thing that we got out of this is that she's got a really good heart. She does, she's got no fucking brain.
SPEAKER_02She but she has a really, really big heart to the detriment of her of herself, yes, you know, and so we learn a lot about her relationship with Adam Driver. She talks about the other girls, they all got really great edits. It sounds like there's a lot of love and respect there. Um, you Jemima was in tiny furniture with her, they were like best friends for life, so I I kind of knew that. And then it's a lot about her family, uh, specifically her parents and the relationship that they have with if you were looking for a definition of a meshment. I to a degree that is unfathomable. Like I the and but also this like really strange dynamic with like her parents being artists and her being an artist, but then I think not fully respecting the fact that she's creating like commercial art and just the fact that like they are living a life that they would not be able to live if their daughter wasn't bankrolling it.
SPEAKER_03Right. And instead of like being grateful for that, and don't get me wrong, they are paying for it tenfold in how much they had to take care of their 32-year-old probably still to this day um child. Uh it's just also like she at least to in her mind, she felt that it was just sh they were just extremely annoyed with her all the time. Yeah. And when they weren't annoyed with her, they were like, God, this fame is so inconvenient for us as we're like flying to fucking Jamaica and like staying at a bungalow.
SPEAKER_02I know. It was pretty crazy. Um, and then she also talks at length about her relationship with Jack, which honestly, like that was like a like throughout the whole book. She talks like Jack, that relationship with Jack Antonov.
SPEAKER_03I was not expecting it to be so much.
SPEAKER_02Me either. And I'm like, are they still in contact? Uh she kind of left it.
SPEAKER_03Don't because I forgot that her and Margaret Quali were in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. I know.
SPEAKER_02Yikes. If I were Margaret Qualey and I read this book, how would you feel?
SPEAKER_03I don't know what it's like to be Margaret Qually. I've never been, I've always been, if we were gonna do this, I've always been the Lena Dunham in this situation.
SPEAKER_02I would be like, uh we're moving out of this fucking apartment immediately. That was weird. That's weird that they're still in the same soulless apartment.
SPEAKER_03And the way she described it, it sounds like the kind of like douchey new bill that Bride and Sons and Representates 100%. Yeah. That is something she does, how unglamorous she makes being famous look.
SPEAKER_00Crazy.
SPEAKER_03It's just so funny. Like, I, you know, you looked at her, our age, being like, Jesus, this woman is running her own show. And she was like laying on an air mattress in her parents' apartment.
SPEAKER_02It's actually insane. Like, Emily and I were talking about it off pod, and I was like, the it's like this weird, wealthy squalor. Like she just totally talking about like mattress. Emily's like, why do we keep hearing about mattresses on the floor?
SPEAKER_03Why is there not a single bed frame to be found? It's crazy.
SPEAKER_02Have you heard of a box spring?
SPEAKER_03Like, what's going on? When she was like healing from her hysterectomy and was like, and I laid on a mattress on the floor. Bitch, what?
SPEAKER_02What is going on? What is going on? We need some support. But then they would just like buy another apartment at the drop of a hat for her and her like junky boyfriend at the time. Like it was so weird. It was rich people are fucking weird.
SPEAKER_03I mean, she there's always been an element of her that makes me uncomfortable. Like in my little Midwest roots, like Yeah.
SPEAKER_02I her comfort with just like living that way and living very transiently and not having roots and like putting herself in really uncomfortable situations, like very intentionally. She taught and like, I mean, I don't mean just emotionally, which she also does, but like actually physically, like the crazy like house that she was describing that she lived in when she first moved to LA that like she had to walk down like a cliff and then walk back up, and she just did that. And the house was like rotting and falling apart. And I'm like, you know, you don't have to do that. She has no survival instincts, she has no survival instincts. Going back to the Jack Antonoff of it all, like I I felt like he got a fairly decent edit. Like, I was not I was kind of expecting like what we saw in Too Much was like Zach. This guy's a fucking asshole.
SPEAKER_03And I guess that's what it was, where like she just like wrote all of the bad shit about it album through too much.
SPEAKER_04You're like one of those guys who thinks that he wants a strong woman who loves all the bright big things about her, but you fucking don't. I used to feel so special about me. Yeah, you're really, really good at turning everything into a sob story.
SPEAKER_03Because she really didn't get into any of the relationship specifics that she could have.
SPEAKER_02Oh my gosh.
SPEAKER_03Like I feel like we got a lot of Jack, but it was always in this very abstract through her illness. Yes. Um, whereas, like, if you watch too much, there is this plot line about this dog um that is literally ripped from the headlines of like her and Jack adopted this dog, and then they like dropped it off at a shelter, and it got a lot, and she got a lot of heat, and in too much, there's a plot line, but it's the the the boyfriend making her get rid of the dog. Yeah. You never think he's an asshole. You kind of just like, yeah, you kind of feel for him. Yeah. For this position that he's in.
SPEAKER_02You kind of feel for him. That's how I came off feeling with him. Like it would be really hard to be in a relationship with her.
SPEAKER_03Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_02Um, just with her health issues, it is exhausting. But then it's also like you aren't doing what you need to do to really get well. Exactly. And I don't totally fault her for that because I don't think the tools were really there for her.
SPEAKER_03No.
SPEAKER_02Um, and then we also at the same time, like a huge theme is her relationship with Jenny Connor, who was her partner in everything. So Jenny Connor was um, was she a showrunner or was she like I think she was hired to be like a script supervisor.
SPEAKER_03Okay. Because that is what her because I know about her because they were in on a they had a podcast together called Woman of the Hour that I pretty much faithfully listened to the whole thing. Um and she got her, I mean, she's an Epo baby, like her dad is a writer. Sure. Um, and she uh got her um like start doing like punch-ups or like being like the woman, like they would like on Transformers, they hired her to be like, How do we make it seem like these women are real in any way, shape, or form? Because they were written by men. So that's where she kind of got her start, and then she wrote for a lot of Judd Apatow stuff, like Undeclared, which I love Undeclared. Okay. Um, and Judd set her up with Lena.
SPEAKER_02Right. And so they become fast friends, and this relationship really like defined Lena, it defined her work. Um, and we learn about like they're not just coworkers, they are like best friends. And what's super fucking weird about this is that Jenny is how much older than Lena? I think 14 years, like in a totally different place in her life. She has children, she's married, she has kids, like she has been in this industry. Um, and so she in a lot of people.
SPEAKER_03She's like fresh off a divorce when they but she was married and had two kids.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, and in a lot of ways, she's kind of Lena's like handler. Like, yes, like that's how I would describe it. It's like she's the seasoned one, and she's coming in and she's like, This is how we do things here, and this is how this is what you do, and this is what I do.
SPEAKER_03There is this this way she describes it as like a Jaclyn Hyde situation. There's like uh uh Jenny is my bestie. Jenny is someone I can depend on, she is my end all be all. Like, I I go to her for advice. Um, and then she tells this story of how Lena had stopped eating because she was like super stressful, and that's a big part of her her issues are her stomach issues. And and um HBO execs were watching the dailies and didn't like it because they wanted this is supposed to be she's supposed to be a little fat. She's too skinny. It's not funny if you're skinny. Yeah, she has to be. So, like Jenny goes up to her and is essentially like, just eat, it's not that hard. And it was like this reminder of like, oh, she's not my friend, she's my handler. Yeah. And how do you become friends with someone who is your handler?
SPEAKER_02Well, it's like, and she says this in her book is that she was the goose that laid the golden egg. Yeah, but that wasn't a good thing. They protected the goose at all costs, but not because uh they cared about the goose, because they cared about the egg. Correct. And so it's like that is the perfect metaphor, I think, for you know, it was like when she would have to, when she was sick and she needed to go to the hospital, they were like, Okay, like do what you gotta do, I guess, but get fucking back here when you can. Yep. And not when you should. Like, not like don't take the time that you need. Get back here when it is like humanly possible. And like there she recounts like she broke her arm and she didn't get medical attention. It was like clearly broken, or broke her elbow, and she just like kept working and then like went to the hospital. They said it, she refused to get a cast because she was acting in all of these scenes, and it was incredibly painful, and she just like kept it in a sling when she wasn't acting.
SPEAKER_03There was a uh her uncle had died, or her uncle was on his deathbed, and they were like, Well, I mean, there's nothing you can really do right now, so we might as well shoot all these scenes.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. And then she missed him.
SPEAKER_03And I think again, like this is how TV is made. Like no one said this industry is like a good and kind industry. But I think where uh Jenny Connor comes in is like this weird guise of a friendship. Yeah. When it there was no friendship. No. This was all about exploiting. Transactional for Jenny.
SPEAKER_02Jenny was getting what she wanted out of Lena, and she was doing it under the guise of friendship. And she was acting like a younger person. With a much like she was exploiting her. And she was just taking advantage of her. And Lena was too young, too green, and inexperienced to be able to see that. And I think she can see that now, obviously, with hindsight and with being older and with working with girls the age that she was. And it is like sickening. So Jenny Connor gets the absolute worst fucking read. 100%. But honestly, in such a way that is very just like Lena sort of like laying out facts. Like I texted Emily while I was reading this, and I was like, this woman's a fucking monster. And I was like, I know there are two sides to every story, but like I cannot get over the age gap of it all.
SPEAKER_03I and I and don't get me wrong, I think we both are. We don't think that she is a monster because she was hard on her or didn't care about her illness or family deaths when there is a when there is a TV to be made. Like that's that's the business. Yeah. I have a problem with her being her friend and constantly being like, you're my soulmate.
SPEAKER_02Slimy. Yes. And acting like she was her best friend. It's fucking weird to be an older person and like make your like a child your best friend. Like I think that's fucking weird. I also just feel like I, as a 38-year-old woman, like I have experienced relationships like that, and like looking not obviously in the same way, but like the same like a similar shade of that. And I'd now uh like I would never do that. No, I would never ever do that.
SPEAKER_03Like using like no withholding friendship, with holding love, unless Lena she would ice her out Jenny more money on a HBO contract.
SPEAKER_02She, you know, after girls, the this was something she talks about was that they were Lena was immediately offered another deal. They both were together, and Lena was offered more money, which she deserved, to be clear. And Jenny went to Lena and was like, we need to get the same pay. And Lena was like, okay, so she went back to them and they were like, the money isn't changing, but your cut will change. If you want her to get as much as you, she'll get more and you'll get less, is basically what it was. And Jenny wouldn't speak to her, uh, was icing her out. And then when Lena finally decided, like, okay, like I'm gonna do that, I'm I'm gonna hold out until we get the same amount of money, then Jenny was like effusive with her again. Like it's so fucked up.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_02It was so manipulative.
SPEAKER_03And again, there are two sides to every story. You could, I mean, you could talk to this woman and she could be like, I never iced her out. I don't know what she's talking about. Like, I'm a mom and I had shit to do, and this woman was so needy. Um, that is a huge possibility. Yeah. Um, but yeah, the whole dynamic of their friendship was was weird. Was super dysfunctional.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. So, um, so they end up having a huge like a friend breakup. Yeah. Like at kind of the very end where it's like they were doing this show together camping. It's truly it was a mini-series, but it was, it was really bad. But it was she was barely, Lena was barely there because she was like in rehab, which like it was interesting. She talks about that she was addicted to clonapen because a doctor got her basically like prescribed her um four milligrams of clonapen four times a day. So she was just like fucking high cooked out of her mind, um, so addicted to these drugs and um really spiraling, her health was not improving. Um, and then it finally got to the point where it was like, I have to go to rehab. And it took her, I think, a long time to even admit like I'm an addict, like I need to go to rehab because the intentions behind it were so different, and because like it was, and this is unfortunately something that happened. I mean, watch dope sick like all the time, still happens all the time. Is it like this? She's like, I was taking this medication as prescribed.
SPEAKER_03Yep. So you don't want to frame yourself as a drug addict. Um, she wrote that so beautiful. I thought she did a really good job because it is a reality for a lot of people.
SPEAKER_02And it is, it was a devastating reality, and it was.
SPEAKER_03I just think she painted it really accurately.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah. Like the nuance of it. The nuance of it. And how like that conflicted she even felt.
SPEAKER_03And I think also just the importance of her admitting that she's a drug addict in order to get better. Yeah. Like she has this deadline that was like, because at the end of the day, it doesn't matter. Like, we are from insanely different backgrounds, but the one thing we have in common is that we fucking love drugs. Yeah. Like, and that I was just like, oh my god, I like highlighted it. It was it was just really profound. Um and there's a lot of profound nuggets throughout all of this.
SPEAKER_02She talks about chronic being so chronically ill and like getting a diagnosis for EDS and that it's a genetic disease. Um, and there's not a ton of answers out there because it's more of like a newer diagnosis. Yeah. Um, and I think I'm not a chronically ill person. Um, but I would hope and think that like for people who are chronically ill, that like this would put like voice to that a little bit. Definitely of moving through life, having to move through life um in in a way where like you don't know like what tomorrow is gonna look like for you. And like how she she talks about she's like there wasn't a city I spent more than two days in that I didn't have an OB. Um, and she also talks a lot about fertility, yeah, which was devastating. Like I had no idea, which why would I? But like she really always knew she wanted to be a mom. Like that was like very much like from when she was little, it was like I'm going to have a child and I'm going to be pregnant and I want to be pregnant.
SPEAKER_03And she really didn't, and maybe I could be wrong, but when because I remember her reading the article about her deciding to have a hysterectomy because basically no doctor is going to tell you to have a hysterectomy before you have kids. Like she talks about that. No doctor, no, none of her doctors are telling her that. Um, so it was like up to her, and it was like this awkward decision.
SPEAKER_02She had to like fight for it. She had to fight for it. She went into the ER and was like, I am not leaving until I get a hysterectomy, and had to go through like psych evaluations and talk to like multiple doctors, and like a committee of doctors had to meet and decide if it was medically necessary. And it it really also just like speaks to women's healthcare and how like our agency is over our body is not respected because certainly not reproductive, exactly because like we can be a vessel for life, and so it's like that is something that like we will protect at all costs, and what is that cost? And she's saying this cost is too high for me.
SPEAKER_03So she really talked a lot about that when it came out of like sh this like I had to beg to have a hysterectomy. Yeah, but she and maybe she just wasn't there yet to talk about the loss of her fertility. Yeah. Um, probably because she couldn't, because if you if she were to whisper about her loss of fertility, arrest her, they wouldn't have given her the hysterectomy. Yes, yes.
SPEAKER_02But that just speaks to like she was in so much pain, and that felt like an answer.
SPEAKER_03And that and we and as women, we can't live in both of those planes of like I can't live in agony all the time if there is a solution, if it means losing my fertility, if I absolutely maybe wanted to be a mom a little bit.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_03Like it's like you can live in those two areas. Yes.
SPEAKER_02She talks about trying to freeze her eggs, and that was unsuccessful, which was really sad. But then also her coming to this realization that like she can't take care of a child because of how sick she is. Yeah. And like how painful that was for her. And just, yeah, it was just really I feel like we're talking about only the sad stuff, but a lot of this book was sad. Like it, like it, I think she's been through some really hard shit. It's a sad book. It's sad. Um, but I think there was a lot of like learning in that and a lot of hope. And a lot of hope, and it led her to her husband, which we really didn't get a lot into in this book, and we didn't talk it, she didn't talk at all about too much, which I kind of wanted her to, but I think she wrote this before.
SPEAKER_03And remember, too much was written by her husband as well. Right. So all of the stuff with that, with the main, with the main male character that is from his perspective.
SPEAKER_02Yes, which I love if you haven't watched too much on Netflix, so good, it's a one season, that's all it's gonna be, which I personally love. Meg Stalter um plays who Lena Denham would be. Um, and then who is the uh guy? I love him. He's been in other things. Look up his name, but um Lena is also in it. She plays um this uh the sister, and then Andrew Rannells from Girls is also in it, and he's amazing always.
SPEAKER_03I forgot that he played her.
SPEAKER_02Her husband, Rita Wilson is in it. Will Sharp plays Felix, he's so good. I love him. He was in White Lotus, that's what he was in with Aubrey Plaza that season. I want to say like season two. Yeah, season two. And he was so different from his White Lotus character, but so good. I loved him. He was so good.
SPEAKER_03Um Max Dalter is like the perfect vessel for Lena Dunham writing. That's perfect because I think she is just naturally funnier than Lena Dunham. So she just was so hilarious.
SPEAKER_02She was so hilarious. Yeah, it was it was a really good show. I would highly recommend. Um, yeah. Anything else you want to say? Um, so are we recommending this book? Yeah, absolutely. I think that like this book for millennials will bring a lot of closure to the Lena Denham of it all. I completely agree. Of like, because she did just fall off the face of the earth.
SPEAKER_03You did such a good job critiquing that. Like I was I was like basically just like, yeah, yeah, yeah. But like the way you pulled that out, you need to write this down. That was just so well done.
SPEAKER_02Thank you so much. Oh my god. Um okay, yeah. We would absolutely recommend. Um, like I said, I loved listening to it. Emily did the hybrid version. However, you want to get your media, we support it, baby. Absolutely. All right, thanks, guys. Thanks for joining us on this flyover deep dive. Our second uh besties who read books. Besties read books. Let us know what you think and let us know if you read it. Let us know what your thoughts are.
SPEAKER_03Yes, please. All right, bye bye.