Uganda Be Kidding Me
Humor, Nonfiction, Biography, Chick Lit, Travel
Grand Central Publishing
3/4/2014
257
Wherever Chelsea Handler travels, one thing is certain: she always ends up in the land of the ridiculous. Now, in this uproarious collection, she sneaks her sharp wit through airport security and delivers her most absurd and hilarious stories ever.
On safari in Africa, it's anyone's guess as to what's more dangerous: the wildlife or Chelsea. But whether she's fumbling the seduction of a guide by not knowing where tigers live (Asia, duh) or wearing a bathrobe into the bush because her clothes stopped fitting seven margaritas ago, she's always game for the next misadventure.
The situation gets down and dirty as she defiles a kayak in the Bahamas, and outright sweaty as she escapes from a German hospital on crutches. When things get truly scary, like finding herself stuck next to a passenger with bad breath, she knows she can rely on her family to make matters even worse. Thank goodness she has the devoted Chunk by her side-except for the time she loses him in Telluride.
Complete with answers to the most frequently asked traveler's questions, hot travel trips, and travel etiquette, none of which should be believed, UGANDA BE KIDDING ME has Chelsea taking on the world, one laugh-out-loud incident at a time.
My Thoughts on Uganda Be Kidding Me:
This…is a hard review to write. I like snark, I generally have no issue with insult comedy, I even have enjoyed some of Chelsea’s previous work. But let me tell you…this book is bad.
The Synopsis paints a booze soaked adventure that sounds like a good time, but all this book did was leave a sour taste in my mouth and praying the author was not as terrible person as she wrote in her books, because if she was, she is an embarrassment to all American travelers.
“After four days of monkey rape, drinking like sailors, and embarrassing the United States of America it was time to destroy another country.”
– Chelsea Handler
Chelsea treats everyone like they are below her. And I don’t just mean an I’m rich and better than you kind of way. I mean a I’m going to go into a page of detail about how ugly/fat/gay/ect someone just for the sake that I find it funny. For some reason she feels a need to call out constantly that her roommate is a lesbian. And not in a constructive way, but more as a badge saying look I have a thing. And I mean that literally, as she even “jokes” about buying her at a lesbian auction in Texas.
Now at this point you may be thinking how I seem to be personally attacking the writer herself and not critiquing the story. But the problem is, the story is all about her. She makes every situation about her, including guilt tripping someone to cancel their trip with a significant other to come with her, throwing tantrums when not getting her way, and forcefully trying to make herself witty with cringe worthy one liners.
At one point one of Chelsea’s friends, apparently pissed off by her antics says: “The two major components necessary for storytelling is for it to be either A) funny, or B) compelling. Please Pick one.” Well, being the defiant Chelsea likes to tout herself as, she picked neither, I hesitated to even put comedy in the tags of the book, because I did not find it humorous one bit.
I do not recommend this book to anyone. I can’t. I don’t even know who would enjoy it as it seems the reviews on this book after I meandered over to Goodreads seems like even her loyal fans secede that this was not the strongest book she has ever written. If you are looking for something that is over the top, witty, completely not PC, but still a fun and interesting read, I recommend Wild by Cheryl Strayed. This book too has drugs, adventure, and questionable content but at least it was a good read, and I didn’t feel like I wanted to rip my hair out just to finish the book.