Let’s Pretend This Never Happened is a “mostly true” memoir by Jenny Lawson, which presents her life as a series of humorous, albeit disturbing stories. Lawson grew up in a very small, very poor Texas town. Most of her early stories come from incidents relating to the animals her father, a taxidermist, brought home, to keep as pets, to eat, or to use for his business. Through her series of bizarre events, she strives to help readers of all walks of life realize that “... you are defined not by life’s imperfect moments, but by your reaction to them” (Dedication).
The means Lawson uses to help her audience come to the realization to which she came, is humor. Though perhaps not everyone has the same sense of humor, it makes her story fun to read, which in turn makes the reader more likely to continue alertly through it, which of course is necessary to the delivery of her message. In one of her stories, she describes the time her father’s “quail” (actually a turkey) named Jenkins followed her to school and made a mess of turkey droppings, which her father was invited in to clean up. Though perhaps most people cannot claim to have been followed to school by their father’s semi-vicious, very loud turkey-that-he-insists-on-calling-a-quail, her concern for her reputation as a result of the unexpected event is something with which most people can identify. After that great embarrassment, she felt she could never achieve a good social standing in high school, and she became a goth drug user. Meanwhile, her sister brushed off the turkey disaster and proceeded with an air of confidence that made her rather popular. Lawson does not really present either path as better, but rather uses the humorous story to show that each of their reactions to the same embarrassing event made them into the very different people they became. Through stories like this, Lawson achieved her purpose, at least for a reader like me.
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