Good On You, Lena Dunham

Good On You, Lena Dunham Earlier this week, my fellow Rioter Cassandra reported on Lena Dunhams $3.5 million book deal, asked, is it worth it? and weighed in with a resounding no.  A $3.5 million book deal is newsworthy no matter who the author is, and tongues are busily wagging about whether Dunham is qualified to write a book that is purportedly advice, whether she has enough of an audience to make book sales worth the publishers investment, and exactly how drunk the Random House executives were when they agreed to pay her so much for it. The dissentand it is mostly dissent out thererevolves around the questions, What does she know? and Does it make financial sense? So lets talk about them. What does Lena Dunham know? Well, shes a 26-year-old woman with a creative writing degree from Oberlin  who has written and produced her own films and now runs and stars in her own show (Girls) on HBO. Thats a hell of a lot more than many 26-year-olds, even well-connected ones, accomplish toward their artistic aspirations, so shes gotta know something.  Dunham has achieved some notable things, and Im sure shes learned some stuff along the way. She has some stories to tell, and Im certainly curious about them. And Im banking on her essay collection, if it really is less how-to and more like Tina Feys Bossypants, actually going somewhere and getting personal in a way that Fey failed to. (Come on, Bossypants  was good, but its time to admit that it didnt quite go there.) Dunham is a storyteller by trade, and its bound to be interestingand revealing, given her signature level of self-awarenesswhen she turns the lens on herself without a proxy character like Girls Hannah Horvath to hide behind.  I watched the first season of Girls and read extensive analysis and discussion about it, and Ive followed Dunham on Twitter for several months now. I have a pretty good idea of what to expect from this book, and even though  I didnt love Girls (I didnt hate it, either), and I dont always agree with Dunhams artistic choices or how she defends them, I respect her. Lena Dunham takes risks. She lets her flaws show, and she responds to criticism. When viewers complained that Girls was too white, Dunham said she was taking steps to correct it. (Well see how this plays out in season 2.) She address sexuality unapologetically, and she appears nude on Girls despite the fact that her body does not conform to cultural standards of beauty. That shit takes real cojones. (Holy cats, do I wish there were a grrlpower equivalent of cojones, but I just refuse to say that takes ovaries.) Dunham is willing to show up and let herself be seen, rolls and neuroses and all. She is doing things that other young women in media are not even gutsy enough to think about. Yes, shes trading in vulnerability-as-entertainment, but shes doing it consciously, and she is her own subject. And what is a memoir if not an exercise in vulnerability-as-entertainment? Now, is Lena Dunhams book a good investment? I dont know. Im not a  publishing executive, and Im not going to pretend I know how and why this decision was made. Heres what I do know: Every book deal is a question mark. Authors with single-digit advances become surprise bestsellers; million-dollar babies sometimes flop. Dunham is literaryshe reads and talks about books onlineand that gives me hope for her writing.  Were not going to know how Lena Dunhams book sells until it sells. And lets manage our expectations, kids. This book doesnt have to be life-changing, it just has to be good. Heres what else I know:  Dunham is highly visible to people who pay attention to pop culture. She has an established platform with her show, her social media presence (and no, I dont expect all of her Twitter followers to buy her book), and her ability to get herself covered in other media outlets. And hello, shes a 26-year-old who has already had significant success. You dont get there without a solid work ethic. This is not Random Houses first rodeothey know what theyre doing, and they must trust Dunham to get the job done. I hope theyre right. Im proud of Lena Dunham for being as young and successful as she is, and for enduring a shitstorm of criticism and unjustified rage that I doubt a man of the same age and accomplishments would have encountered. Good on you, Lena Dunham. Now its time to prove the haters wrong. Sign up to Today In Books to receive  daily news and miscellany from the world of books. Thank you for signing up! Keep an eye on your inbox.