From her initial essay, in which she describes herself as a slovenly dreamer who squanders the better part of the day in inactivity, to her final essay, in which she describes herself as accidentally stumbling into the career of a bestselling author, Irby denigrates herself continually. There is no essay in which self-deprecation is not a key element of the author’s prose. Broadly, Irby criticizes herself for being socially incompetent, financially inept, lazy, undisciplined, materialistic, and basically unconcerned about all these shortcomings. She accepts the fact that she is unacceptable. To an extent, she blames her deceased parents for this, never speaking of them without likewise being highly critical. However, she seems unwilling to allow them to carry the real weight of her perceived unworthiness as, after criticizing her parents, she quickly shifts the conversation to her own defects of character.

At the same time, the popularity of Irby’s previous work makes clear that many readers relate to the less-than-perfect image she presents of herself. Indeed, it’s possible to read Irby’s tendency to put herself down as evoking the weight of unrealistic expectations more than it reveals anything uniquely negative about how she thinks of herself as an individual.