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Talking As Fast As I Can by Lauren Graham

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I’ve admitted before that I love Gilmore Girls, and I’ll admit it again here, which is why I decided to read Talking as Fast as I Can: From Gilmore Girls to Gilmore Girls (and Everything in Between) by Lauren Graham, which she wrote ahead of the Gilmore Girls “A Year in the Life.”

First, I want to clarify my feelings about Gilmore Girls. In so many ways, the plot (and yes, even some of the beloved dialogue) is predictable, formulaic. Sometimes it feels like the creators just had an idea and went with it before thinking for even one second about deeper meaning or complexity, and that’s okay. I just often find myself wanting more from the show, even as much as I am a fan.

I am a fan because I absolutely LOVE the premise. The premise is perfection. It is interesting, sometimes feminist, and idyllic. It is an always beautiful, quaint little New England town inhabited by colorful women who are living life joyfully and on their own terms. The men are mostly cool too–there’s very little of the sexist strife that pervades much of popular media today (and, unfortunately, real life too). The premise makes me love the show and all of the possibility it holds.

While women also have power in many popular shows, it is often a very masculine definition of power, with what feels like to me very masculine pursuits. Of course, my understanding of what is “masculine” is completely biased, but to me, many of the pursuits of Stars Hollow feel distinctly not masculine. It’s also just lovely to watch.

As for the book, I enjoyed it as Gilmore Girls fans will. Graham provides detailed insights into the films of the Gilmore Girls, both the original and the reboot. Graham is also a writer, and the book reads more like a collection of short stories and definitely ventures far beyond the world of Stars Hollow and into Graham’s career and life. Fans will like that too.

map of Stars Hollow

Talking As Fast As I Can by Lauren Graham

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In a development that surprises me as much as it does you, last year, I watched the entire series of The Gilmore Girls. When I was done, I watched the new Netflix reboot. I’m not exactly sure why I did this. Some of the plot lines were infuriating. Some of the characters were inconsistent (Lorelai was such a powerful outspoken person when it came to raising her daughter, but a complete push over when it comes to the men in her life??).

But, I liked the relationship between mother and daughter, and I liked what the show was *trying* to do (and sometimes succeeded in doing), and I liked that I could see a quaint little town, with happy, supportive people, who always felt welcome and at home. Cheesy as it sometimes was, I needed it.

Lauren Graham plays Lorelai Gilmore, and Lauren Graham is also an English major in real life, who evidently wrote some successful, thinly disguised fiction awhile back, and so I thought I would read her memoir, Talking as Fast as I Can: From Gilmore Girls to Gilmore Girls (and Everything in Between).

It wasn’t half bad. Unlike all of these famous actor memoirs I’ve been reading over the past few years, this book did not appear to be ghost written. I was struck by how much the tone was very much like Lorelai Gilmore’s. It’s hard to tell where the actor/person Lauren ends and the character Lorelai begins. Perhaps that’s because it’s the truth of who Graham is, and that influenced her portrayal of the character, or perhaps it’s because she wrote the book, in part, during the Netflix reboot.

It’s mostly amusing and insightful, particularly if you’re interested in any aspect of the show. I did find myself tiring of some of the schtick, much like I tired of some of the long jabbering she did as Lorelai in the show. But, I’m still a fan. It reads up quickly, and if you’re a fan, you’ll read it. In fact, I’m sure you already have.