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Not That Kind of Girl

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Not That Kind of Girl: A Young Woman Tells You What She's "Learned"
AuthorLena Dunham
LanguageEnglish
GenreMemoir, autobiography
PublishedSeptember 30, 2014
PublisherRandom House
Publication placeUnited States
Pages265
ISBN978-0812994995

Not That Kind of Girl: A Young Woman Tells You What She's "Learned" is a 2014 memoir book written by Lena Dunham. The book is a collection of autobiographical essays, lists, and emails. Not That Kind of Girl was released in hardcover by Random House on September 30, 2014.

Publication history

Random House purchased the rights to the essay collection in October, 2012 after a bidding war generated by Dunham's 66-page book proposal. Bidding was reported to have risen past $3.5 million. Not That Kind of Girl was published September 30, 2014. The book is dedicated to Nora Ephron. Not That Kind of Girl reached #2 on the The New York Times Best Seller list on October 19.

Reception

Sloane Crosley for The New York Times said the book was often hilarious but not ground-breaking in content. Crosley cautioned that attempts to view Dunham as a bellwether of modern feminism would unfairly overshadow the author. Hadley Freeman, in a review for The Guardian, described Dunham as being a smart and talented writer, and the book as being brutally honest, but also narcissistic and thin in experience. Leah Greenblatt of Entertainment Weekly gave the book a "B+", saying that the book is unlikely to change anyone's opinions of Dunham, but that the book was "guided mostly by a Woody-Allen-with-a-uterus kind of whimsy."

Controversy

In November 2014 Dunham and the book became a subject of controversy following a profle of Dunham by Kevin D. Williamson published in National Review. In one passage of the book Dunham describes examining her sister Grace Dunham's genitals when Lena was 7-years-old and Grace was 1, which Williamson characterizes as sexually inappropriate. The accusations were also picked up by TruthRevolt, The Daily Caller, Fox News, and other outlets. In an interview about the controversy in Slate, developmental psychologist Ritch Savin-Williams says that the cited passages appear to match age-appropriate behavior, and do not indicate abuse. Child sexual abuse expert David Finkelhor said that the single incident was not an indication of abuse, and psychologist Sharon Lamb said that the incidents described in the book were "within the norms of childhood sexual behavior."

Dunham denied the charges, and later apologized for some of the wording in the book, specifically the joking use of the term 'sexual predator', which she described as insensitive.

References

  1. Kakutani, Michiko (September 23, 2014). "Hannah's Self-Aware Alter Ego Lena Dunham's Memoir-ish 'Not That Kind of Girl'". The New York Times.
  2. Daum, Meghan (September 10, 2014). "Lena Dunham Is Not Done Confessing". New York Times Magazine. Retrieved November 7, 2014.
  3. Dunham, Lena (2014). Not That Kind of Girl: A Young Woman Tells You What She's "Learned". Random House. ISBN 978-0812994995.
  4. Bosman, Julie (October 8, 2012). "Lena Dunham Signs Book Deal for More Than $3.5 Million". The New York Times. Retrieved November 7, 2014.
  5. Dry, Rachel (September 24, 2014). "Review: 'Not That Kind of Girl,' by Lena Dunham". The Washington Post. Retrieved November 7, 2014.
  6. "COMBINED PRINT & E-BOOK NONFICTION". The New York Times. October 19, 2014. Retrieved November 7, 2014.
  7. Crosley, Sloane (October 9, 2014). "A Voice of a Generation". The New York Times. Retrieved November 7, 2014.
  8. Freeman, Hadley (September 30, 2014). "Not That Kind of Girl review – Lena Dunham exposes all, again". The Guardian. Retrieved November 7, 2014.
  9. Greenblatt, Leah (October 10, 2014). "Not That Kind of Girl (2014)". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved November 7, 2014.
  10. Williamson, Kevin D. "Pathetic Privilege". No. November 3, 2014. Retrieved November 12, 2014.
  11. McKay, Hollie (November 5, 2014). "'Not That Kind of Girl': Lena Dunham's legal threats not a good idea, experts say". Fox News. Retrieved 7 November 2014.
  12. Wenner Moyer, Melinda (November 4, 2014). "Lena Dunham's Totally Normal Childhood". Slate. Retrieved November 7, 2014.
  13. Clark-Flory, Tracy. "Child therapists: Stop freaking out about Lena Dunham". Salon. No. November 4, 2014. Retrieved November 7, 2014.
  14. Rosenberg, Alyssa (November 6, 2014). "What Lena Dunham has that the rest of us deserve". The Washington Post. Retrieved November 7, 2014.
  15. D'Zurilla, Christine (November 4, 2014). "Lena Dunham apologizes for her 'comic use' of 'sexual predator'". Los Angeles Times.
  16. Rothman, Michael (November 4, 2014). "Lena Dunham Apologizes for 'Sexual Predator' Section in Her Book". Good Morning America. ABC News. Retrieved November 7, 2014.
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