Miss Fortune: Fresh Perspectives on Having It All from Someone Who Is Not Okay

In her second collection of autobiographical stories, actress Weedman (A Woman Trapped in a Woman’s Body) spins dark material into cathartic comedy and genuine insight on love and loss. Effortlessly tossing off one-liners, she compares a threesome to “doing theater in the round,” and at the thought of not drinking alcohol for four days she worries,“What if I had seizures—or worse... feelings.” She writes frequently of having been adopted, poking fun at the name on her birth certificate, calling herself “Tammy ‘Get off me, Daddy, you’re crushing my smokes’ Lisa.” Her own pregnancy and anxiety about motherhood segues into the story of meeting her birth mother at age 19. The most moving essay focuses on Weedman’s separation from her second husband. She recounts the end of the relationship evocatively, reflected through the bizarre cast of characters who occupy her apartment complex and consistently distract her (and the reader) from accepting the inevitable. The final essay finds Weedman adrift in Portland coping with the “Hollywood cliché” of her ex-husband’s new relationship with their former babysitter. Weedman’s charm and self-deprecating humor easily draw the reader in, and her willingness to tangle with hard truths make this a deeply affecting account of salvaging a life from wreckage. (Mar.)