Book Review: How to Grow Up

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How to Grow Up

By Michelle Tea

PLUME BOOKS

Michelle Tea skipped college and spent her 20s and 30s in grimy houses, drinking herself unconscious and getting herself fired from every entry-level job she took. She eventually sobered up, landed a teaching gig, published several books, and won over the love of her life—a polished businesswoman named Dashiell. Her “meandering and counterintuitive” path may not inspire imitators. But Tea’s candid and colorful writing, chronicling her emotional wedding, stabs at Buddhism, devotion to eccentric fashion, and attempts to get knocked up with “sperm shooters,” speaks to her ability to function as an adult without losing sight of her wackier self.