Roseanne angry, holier than thou and humorous

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This article was published 22/01/2011 (5365 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Roseannearchy

Dispatches from the Nut Farm

By Roseanne Barr

Gallery Books, 256 pages, $26

JUST when you thought it was safe, Roseanne Barr and her jaws are back.

The American comedian and actor’s third book — part autobiography and part snarky advice on every subject under the sun — ranges from mildly entertaining to total turnoff.

As Roseanne Connors, the blue-collar feminist mom on the ’90s TV show Roseanne, her wisecracking, earthy, controlling personality had enough production input to keep things watchable. But this new book reads like it had no editor.

Her annoying lack of style and discipline hobbles her multiple messages — some of them excellent. Off the top, she repeats variations of the “fat bitch with no ass” put-down descriptions of herself, tied up with “who’d a thunk I’d become so famous?” type lines.

Too bad! Roseanne has a brilliant mind; she’s a deeply insightful and clear thinker who often sees things — especially in the socio-political realm — that no one else catches.

The best parts of Roseannearchy are the chapters where she talks with great warmth about her crazy, lovable female grandparents, her Jewish bubbes.

You can’t help but love the descriptions of their conversations with Roseanne and the delightful family stories, such as Bubbe Fanny’s rebellious romance and marriage with “Roy the Goy.”

Let’s hope we all live to be grandparents who have as much dynamic energy as the two women who meant so much to Barr.

Someone must have told her no one will read this 28-chapter rant in a few sittings. Barr actually suggests readers choose to taste a bit at a time without sequence, like a 3 a.m. fridge improv experience: “Hey this chocolate covered strawberry really tastes good with a mouthful of bean-and-cheese burrito. Now where’s the rest of that pumpkin pie?”

It’s no secret Roseanne has had her troubles, and early in the book she starts to enlightens us. Roseanne Cherrie Barr, born in 1952, was the first and only child in an adoring extended Jewish family.

For years she was applauded at their frequent family gatherings as the perfect singer and dancer by the entire family. But when her younger, slimmer cousin Debbie came along, Roseanne’s family defected in favour of the prettier model.

To add to this heartbreak, she later developed obsessive-compulsive disorder, morbid thoughts, weight-gain issues, eating problems and anxiety leading to wetting herself in public.

To her credit, Roseanne still had enough ego left to get help, get in on early feminism, write 260 jokes and end up on a standup comedy stage.

Later, she was discovered by Johnny Carson, and landed herself a TV show that ran the best part of a decade. Now she writes books and blogs, living between L.A. and her nut farm in Hawaii. (Not to be confused with a nut house, gentle readers.)

Roseanne, now 58, claims she has gotten all her split-off personalities integrated now, and it’s believable. She is consistently an angry, holier-than-thou writer with a sense of humour. In other words, a modern comedian in search of a microphone.

Maureen Scurfield writes the Free Press’s Miss Lonelyhearts life advice column.