Have you ever bought a book that promised you a whole lot of LOLs but ended up forcing you to sit TF down to ponder over the mere privilege of… being alive? Comedienne Tiffany Haddish’s book, The Last Black Unicorn, which you can easily finish in two post-work sittings, is a selection of stories and incidents from her childhood, her awkward (for lack of a better word) love-life, how she got started with standup comedy, her two marriages to the same guy, her brush with fame and her celebrity friends. Nothing is sacrosanct. As in the case with Haddish in real life, this book too has zero tolerance for political correctness.
For instance she describes with the minutest details the thoroughly entertaining, but completely wack stories of the men she’s dated. She’s already spoken about Roscoe, the handicapped guy, during multiple TV shows, so we won’t go there. Equally extraordinary is the tale of how she exacted revenge on a cheating ex-boyfriend. There is no detail too petty for Tiffany to share. Be it how she gave him goo-filled Jordans, sent devious x-rated Christmas presents to all his relatives, or how she became a pimp to exact revenge on an ex-boyfriend who was trying his hand at becoming one too – no story is off-limits.
Interspersed with her accidentally comic dating life are her trials with a mentally unstable mother, an absent father, and a negligent and possibly criminal step-dad. The book covers several deeply unsettling incidents in the same conversational manner that one would expect to hear a standup act in. Be it stories from her foster home or the complicated tale of how she divorced a physically abusive husband, remarried him, and then divorcing him for good after discovering he was a scumbag in more ways than one. Yeah. It’s not your average celebrity memoir; it’s a goddamn roller coaster ride. And reader discretion is advised.
The book has received rave reviews on about every reading application or virtual library. It would be save to say that more than half of those reviews come from people who cannot believe this 38-year-old standup comic, who’s been called 2017’s break out star for her film, Girl’s Trip, has braved the odds to do what she does with an irresistible smile.
If you’re a fan who’s bought her book expecting to laugh out loud, like you do during her interviews, consider yourself warned. Her slightly hysterical tone and breathless monologues might be designed to induce laughter, but you WILL be trying to choke down a near-constant cry of horror at the life she’s lived. Nay, survived.
I’d feel cheated of those promised LOLs, if I wasn’t completely in awe of Tiffany Haddish, the last black unicorn.
