Ephron, is at her most hilariously self-deprecating when it comes to her attractiveness and vanity. Fey’s efforts to depict herself as “a little tiny person with nothing to worry about running in circles, worried out of her mind,” she comes off as a strongly opinionated dynamo with a comedic voice that is totally her own. Fey writes, after dropping the names of a few comedy all-stars, “but my editor told me that was a cheap way to flesh out the book.” And “Bossypants” doesn’t need to discuss anyone more famous than its sufficiently famous author. She moved on to Chicago in 1992 and began trying to entertain the uninterested, studying improvisation at the Second City, the sketch comedy theater with so many famous alumni.

So I spent four years attempting to charm the uninterested.” “What’s that you say? None of them want that? You are correct. Fey, who calls herself Greek when she isn’t calling herself German. “What 19-year-old Virginia boy doesn’t want a wide-hipped, sarcastic Greek girl with short hair that’s permed on top?” asks Ms. Fey through an awkward girlhood spent in Upper Darby, Pa., teenage years with a coterie of gay friends and a fish-out-of-water stint at the University of Virginia.

It’s a spiky blend of humor, introspection, critical thinking and Nora Ephron-isms for a new generation. Fey also writes about the point at which her foray into political satire became too much for her staunchly Republican parents. “The moment most emblematic of how things have changed for women in America,” she writes, “was nine-months-pregnant Amy Poehler rapping as Sarah Palin and tearing the roof off the place.” Ms. Fey’s Sarah Palin-Hillary Clinton skit with Amy Poehler, but Ms. Some thought the feminist high point was Ms.

Fey have achieved the apotheosis that could be seen on “Saturday Night Live” just before the 2008 presidential election. “Only in comedy,” she writes, about interviewing for a writing job on “Saturday Night Live” in 1997, “does an obedient white girl from the suburbs count as diversity.”Īnd only in comedy could Ms. Fey’s self-image as a smart, unyielding woman who has forced her way to the top of what is usually a man’s profession.

Ms bossy pants