Buffering: Unshared Tales of a Life Fully Loaded by Hannah Hart
With a Youtube show titled My Drunk Kitchen, where social media star Hannah Hart gets drunk and dubiously tries to cook (or bake) things, you would expect her memoir to be lighthearted, comedic, even self-deprecating view of her life – on the contrary, however; Buffering: Unshared Tales of a Life Fully Loaded is a poignant, introspective memoir. About to turn 30, Hart is able to look back on her life, and recount it with a maturity and understanding that is beautiful and incredibly human.
Growing up in relative poverty, with a schizophrenic mother, and a homophobic, deeply religious father, Hart is brutally honest about what it was like for her and her sister growing up. From the rules that were in place when her mother was at work (1. Never call 911, and 2. Only call if someone is bleeding), to having her intelligence brought into question over her lack of knowledge of navel oranges at her father and stepmother’s house, Hart’s writing is both familiar and exceptional. Looking back on her life, she is able to recognize, for instance, the things given to her by her father (the ability to be well-spoken, how to play chess and drive a car), but also has the maturity to understand that his inability to accept her as a person, lesbian and all, is too incompatible with her self-worth as a human being.
Documenting her beginnings and success with My Drunk Kitchen (not so much a tale driven by the love of seeing viewer numbers go up, but rather a story of long-distance friendship), Hart shares in her now-familiar honest and straightforward style of writing (which somehow manages to also have a deep undertone of humor and spot-on comedic timing), her experiences in L.A., people trying to convince her to turn My Drunk Kitchen into a non-drunk professional cooking show, and coming out via a nine-minute unedited Youtube video. Continuing on to cover a number of areas of family, friendship, self-worth, mental health, tattoos, and living in New York City vs. Los Angeles, Hart engages her readers in a deeply humbling journey – one that encourages and inspires.
Perhaps not the memoir we expected, but definitely the one we needed.
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