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The Student News Site of Saint Louis University

The University News

The Student News Site of Saint Louis University

The University News

‘Yes Please’ to Poehler

Who doesn’t love Amy Poehler? Anyone who’s watched her work on “Saturday Night Live” or “Parks and Recreation” was excited to hear that Poehler would be joining the growing number of women in comedy who have published hilarious memoirs. Poehler herself references them gratefully as inspiration in her introduction: Tina Fey’s “Bossypants”, Mindy Kaling’s “Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?”, and Lena Dunham’s “Not That Kind of Girl”, among many others. Women are speaking up, and their words are funny, touching, entertaining and inspiring.

Poehler’s book, “Yes Please” is full of anecdotal wisdom from personal history. She explains the title in a set of instructions at the beginning of the book: “I love saying ‘yes’ and I love saying ‘please’. Saying ‘yes’ doesn’t mean I don’t know how to say no, and saying ‘please’ doesn’t mean I’m asking for permission. ‘Yes please’ sounds powerful and concise. It’s a response and a request. It is not about being a good girl; it is about being a real woman.” The book cover, with its bright lights and Poehler’s strong pose, echoes the same assertive and courageous message. (The back of the hardcover, without the dust jacket, reads “Thank you”.)

Courtesy of Heidi Lewis
Courtesy of Heidi Lewis

Let’s get this out of the way — the book is not a literary masterpiece. It isn’t supposed to be one. It’s a funny memoir by a celebrity we wish we could be friends with. Reading the book feels sort of like that; Poehler might as well be sitting on your living room couch, chatting with you about her life experiences.

“Yes Please” offers hundreds of pages of uninterrupted Amy Poehler for those of us who want that. This isn’t a book people would read if she weren’t already famous, and it’s not a book that someone who doesn’t care about her should read either. The celebrity-memoir type of book inhabits a strange section of literature. What is important is not the book, but the author, who is not an author by profession. (Imagine if famous authors created TV shows for fun the way it seems these actors write books for fun.)

The trend is odd, and perhaps motivated by the money that publishers can rake in by selling mediocre books written by celebrities, but the fact is that “Yes Please” is still enjoyable. Readers get inside looks into momentous “Saturday Night Live” skits, such as Poehler’s Sarah Palin rap in 2008. Poehler also laments a skit where she unknowingly mocked a disabled child, and she writes about shame and the difficulty in apologizing and asking for forgiveness.

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The pages of this book include stories on Poehler’s life in Chicago and New York, the beginnings of “Parks and Recreation”, her life as a mother of two young boys, and more. It’s a fun insight into her life with as many quirky stories as you would expect. Feel free to pass on this book if it’s not up your alley, but fans of Poehler will eagerly eat it up.

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