05/15/2026
Join us on Tuesday, July 14th at 12:30pm for a discussion on our latest SickLit Book Club Pick: Lena Dunham's Fame Sick: A Memoir! đïž
You can find it on Amazon on paperback, Audible, and Kindle or at your local book store (such as Book Soup)-- and hopefully at your local library too! If you are unable to find a copy to lend and you can't afford to purchase it, please email us and we'll help you get a copy!
About Famesick by Lena Dunham:
âIn this rowdy, frank reflection on illness, fame, s*x, and everything in between, the remarkable mind behind the hit series Girls and the bestselling author of Not That Kind of Girl asks whether fulfilling her creative ambitions has been worth the pain.
For the last decade, as sheâs spent countless hours in doctorâs waiting rooms searching for diagnoses, treatments, and relief, being the owner and operator of Lena Dunhamâs body has felt, as she puts it, 'like towing a wrecked car across town at midnight.' Itâs not easy dragging a wrecked car anywhere, much less to the Met Gala while sewn into a gold lamĂ© corset. Or to the set of the hit show that you â as a twenty-five-year-old â are writing, directing, producing, and starring in. Or to the White House, the Golden Globes, or your publicistâs office to discuss the latest internet disaster. But Dunham does it â even if it means interminable hospital stays, vomiting in the bathroom when sheâs meant to be meeting Oprah, or terrifying those closest to her â because she can no longer tell the difference between fighting to do what she loves and being a servant to her own ambition. All the while, she is holding out for a love that can withstand her personal and public challenges and, more than anything, yearning to feel like herself again â if only she could remember who that self was.
As Dunham takes us through her journey, tracking her rise to fame â from selling the pilot of Girls to the present â in three acts, it becomes clear that the spotlight casts long shadows, distorting the relationships she once held dear and isolating everyone in its glare. When an endless supply of drugs canât protect you from pain â and begins to control your every move â being famous doesnât stand a chance against the darker corners of the human experience.
In Famesick, Dunham asks herself what the cost of fulfilling her dreams has really been, and whether it was worth it. What she finds is deeper than physical relief, and more lasting, as she learns to live with what she canât change and turn her regrets into wisdom that can carry her forward, as she reconnects to what, and who, she loves."
