A funny, biting, and entertaining memoir of coming of age in the shadow of celebrity and finding your own way in the face of absolute chaos that is both a moving portrait of a complicated family and an exploration of the cost of fame.
Growing up, Jenny Pentlandâs life was a literal sitcom. Many of the storylines for her motherâs smash hit series, Roseanne, were drawn from Pentlandâs early family life in working-class Denver. But that was only the beginning of the drama. Roseanne Barrâs success as a comedian catapulted the family from the Rockies to star-studded Hollywoodâwith its toxic culture of money, celebrity, and prying tabloids that was destabilizing for a child in grade school.
By adolescence, Jenny struggled with anxiety and eating issues. Her parents and new stepfather, struggling to help, responded by sending Jenny and her siblings on a grand tour of the self-help movement of the â80sâfrom fat camps to brat camps, wilderness survival programs to drug rehab clinics (even though Jenny didnât take drugs). Becoming an adult, all Jenny wanted was to get married and have kids, despite Roseanneâs admonishments not to limit herself to being just a wife and mother.
In this scathingly funny and moving memoir, Pentland reveals what itâs like to grow up as the daughter of a television star and how she navigated the turmoil, eventually finding her own path. Now happily married and raising five sons on a farm, Pentland has worked tirelessly to create the stable family she never had, while coming to terms at last with her deep-seated anxiety.
This Will Be Funny Later is a darkly funny and frank chronicle of transition, from childhood to adulthood and motherhoodâone womanâs journey to define herself and create the life she always wanted.