Kate Clinton

Kate Clinton is all over the place in this collection of mini-essays comprising her first book, Don't Get Me Started. She writes about coming out, her family, her stand-up comedy, college, politics, the gay community, and earthquakes, among many other topics. While her writing is not laughing-out-loud funny like Ellen Degeneres, her more intellectual approach towards topics give interesting insight into the topics she discusses. However, the more subtle humor, with a sarcastic bent, is woven show more into her essays, keeping them fairly light and enjoyable. Overall, Kate Clinton is worth reading and I'm curious to see how her writing style develops in her later books. show less

I'm hard-pressed to figure out how to describe the writing of Kate Clinton. Given that she is a comedian, it seems like funny should be a part of my description, but it's not. There were a few places where I actually chuckled while reading, but I can count those instances on one hand. Her writing seems to be more of a wry, feminist, every-woman take on current and political events. She's flippant and sarcastic and gets to the point of each of her essays quickly.

So once the expectation of show more comedy is lowered, what's left is a collection of essays that sum up the liberal, feminist, queer view of politics from 2006 to late 2008. The last throes of Bush are described and then the primaries and general presidential election are re-told from Clinton's perspective. Given that she is a 60 year old woman who's not afraid to speak her mind, her essays obviously state her points firmly. She doesn't beat around the Bush, she beats the Bush directly.

Clinton's take on the last few years of politics is a worthy read, voiced from a feminist that is worth listening to. show less

Despite Rachel Maddow's blurb on the cover, I didn't find this particularly funny, which was a surprise as I've read other work by Clinton that was. Maybe it's just too dated.

good sick-bed reading!