How Do You Want Me? - Ruby Wax > Reviews (3)

I really like Ruby Wax on the TV so I thought I would treat myself to Ruby's book "How do you want me?" . I thought it would be a romp through her life -in the same energetic and humerous (some might say manic) way she has when on the small screen.

From the first page I was entralled with her "unusual " upbringing and I found myself really feeling for her in her early years as she found herself to be "different " from the classmates she had. I empathised with her lack of being one of the "good looking" girls -so much that she became an honorary boy....and laughed at some of the antics she got up to when delaing with her better looking girl classmates! Her rebellion against her father I can understand - but more of that later.

Her home life was .....odd- and I don't use the word readily - but her description of her family's oddities is forthright and honest and made me feel sympathy for her plight. I also laughed at the antics of her dog, her mother (manic cleaner) and her sympathestic grandmother (wandering around with her underwear dragging on the floor!) and I hope I wasn't being too dreadful by doing so. her description of her dog Lumpy and what he got up to must resonate with some people who have had sexually overactive dogs! I just thank goodness that my own little dog hasn't been so afflicted!!!!

Ruby writes and you will want to read - it's as simple as that. Her story divides into 10 chapters-
Legacy
Youth
Puberty
Men
Ambition
Fame
marriage
Babies
Breakdown
Fixing yourself.

Each chapter covers an aspect of her life that she goes into with gusto, 9as you would fully expect) and even though some of the things she describes are (after thinking about it and separating her humour from the situation) awful the way she decsribes them does seem to lessen the impact eg her father used to beat her and she said that mentally every time he beat her she would charge him for that beating- she estimated that by the time she was grown up he owed her $10 million. That must have been a lot of beating and i don't know how she put up with it. I certainly couldn't have done it. It has given me an insight into her and a wish to say "Good on you Ruby" that I had not got before.

I really had a chuckle at her "fame" chapter -which opens with a simple test on how much envy we carry around. Her questions " Are you happy for those smiling celebrities , living in perfect homes with perfect partners? Or do you somewhere, secretly in you bowels, wish that they and their perfect spawn would be run over by a stampede of buffalo?" made me really laugh! Because although I have no interest in the people in "Hello" magazine, the round robin letters that come round to me each Christmas which describe such perfect people and their spawn do make me wish for a herd of buffalo to stampede....she really hit the nail on the head for me!!!!!

Her descriptions of models and fashion designers are spot on as well!!!! Superb, Ruby!!!

Her need for attention she ascribes to having a lack of it in her early years- and her father's constant criticism.

Ordinary people can probably empathise with this if they have experienced it, and sympathise if they haven't. Her analysis of why famous people look for more and more recognition from the public does make you think why so many "celebrities " end up in rehab. These people should be pitied and we should really want to help them!

She says that she uses deflation on some stars when interviewing them - becasue they need it-and I can remember her doing it- SO WELL!!!!

When she decided to have children (in the marriage chapter, where else? ) her reasons for doing so were hilarious- " it wasn't a call so much to breed, more that I started to think: who's going to help me go to the toilet when I'm 92?".....so TRUE, Ruby!!!

The chapter on babies is yet another where she absolutely tells things as they are...after everyone tells you how wonderful and beautiful it all is, she says "do not listen to these people - it is f****ing hell. "

Her final words which tell of her tears when her father told her he loved her moved me a lot- given that he had been a tyrant all of her life. However now he is old, his mind has gone and she feels freer than she did. He is not capable of insulting her any longer.

The book contains some really good photos -and she was brave putting some of her earlier ones in there, especially as her description of herself in the early part of the book was not flattering....but naturally she did over exaggerate her ugliness!!!

There are 241 pages in this book and I could have read as many again if not more. Ruby's story is interesting, funny and moving and I recommend it to you. However if you really don't like Ruby, just ask yourself why? is it her performance on TV? Then just look a bit behind the performance and match it to her experiences and I challenge you to come out of the book still disliking her.

You can get this book from all retail booksellers but some of the online booksellers have it in special offers at the moment. Prices vary from £10 approx to £5. BUY IT and enjoy!