Are You There, Vodka? It's Me, Chelsea

April 21, 2008
At the age of nine, comedian Handler (host of her own cable talk show, Chelsea Lately) was already making up stories about all-night contract negations with Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell to get out of English assignments-but then, what would one expect from a girl told by her parents, a week before her fourth birthday, to plan her own party? This funny, whip-smart memoir, the follow-up her sex-centric essay collection My Horizontal Life, chronicles Handler's ridiculous, gamboling life thus far, from her elementary school days-hounded by older girls for being less than wealthy, stuck at 12 babysitting an unruly 14-year-old with a wicked sugar addiction-to her sexually hyperactive, cocktail-swilling grown-up years. Handler's hard-headed sense of humor and maniacal wit get her through a number of difficult situations, including incarceration for a DUI, threatening to beat up a snotty teenager, and facing a breakup with one man while hiding another under her bed. But Handler also demonstrates an attuned sense of self and a keen eye for those around her that occasionally elevate her musings from mere hilarity to genuine poignancy-but not to worry, the only tears readers will shed are from laughter.