Lena Dunham (b. 1986) is an award-winning American writer, director, actress, and producer. Dunham is perhaps best known for being the creator, writer, and star of the HBO television series Girls (2012–2017), which follows the lives of four educated young women who are finding themselves.
Lena Dunham
I read Dunham's memoir 'Not That Kind of Girl' (2014), about her childhood and young adult years. I ended my review with the comment, "I imagine Dunham will have plenty more to say about her life in the future, which might be interesting to read about. I'll be looking out for another memoir."
Well, Famesick is Dunham's new memoir.
If you want to know the bare minimum about 'Famesick', this review will contain spoilers, so I'll include a spoiler alert.
SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT
*****
Lena Dunham had anxiety problems starting in childhood, despite having loving and attentive parents, the professional artists Laurie Simmons and Carroll Dunham. 
Lena Dunham with her parents, Laurie Simmons and Carroll Dunham
Lena's disquiet increased in adulthood, accompanied by a wide array of physical symptoms. In part, that's the subject of this book. In her introduction, Dunham notes, "I've spent much of the last ten years sick. Sometimes in a hospital bed, more often in my own bed, most often at work or out to dinner, pretending not to feel how I feel. It's very hard to remember a time...when being in my body didn't feel like towing a wrecked car across town at midnight."
Dunham grew up in New York City and was a creative youngster who liked drawing and writing.
Young Lena Dunham
Lena started to make short films while attending artsy Oberlin College, and on visits home, she'd hang out with up-and-coming filmmakers like Josh and Benny Safdie. Dunham writes, "All I wanted was to be around people who were making movies, or writing about movies on their Blogspots, like the one I kept where I reviewed Cassavetes films for no one."
After graduating from Oberlin, Dunham babysat, took odd jobs, and rented a tiny studio/office in Manhattan while still living with her parents. Dunham's breakthrough came with her short movie, 'Tiny Furniture' (2010), about a college graduate who returns home and tries to figure out what to do with her life. The film won the Grand Jury Prize at South by Southwest, and the calls started coming in.
With the help of her mother Laurie, Dunham got an agent and headed for Los Angeles. Meetings with people at HBO resulted in a job offer, a partnership with writer/producer Jenni Konner, and the series 'Girls' - with comedy guru Judd Apatow as executive producer.
From left to right: Jenni Konner, Lena Dunham, and Judd Apatow
Dunham was a writer, director, and actor on Girls, about four twentysomething women in New York City. 
From left to right: Zosia Mamet, Allison Williams, Lena Dunham, and Jemima Kirke
Dunham writes a great deal about the show, including the cast; the nudity and sex scenes; the rapid success; the nasty social media backlash; misunderstandings on the set; her falling out with actor Adam Driver; and more. 
Lena Dunham and Adam Driver
Girls ran for six seasons and garnered numerous accolades and awards. The show's success made Dunham a celebrity, and - in addition to promoting Girls - Lena became a guest on late night television programs; attended big and small award shows; was invited to the Met Gala; did a Vogue cover shoot; hosted Saturday Night Live; and so on. 
Lena Dunham's Vogue photo shoot (with Adam Driver)
Lena Dunham hosting Saturday Night Live
As a showrunner and actress, Dunham was surrounded by staff who reminded her to eat, sleep, and breathe; peeled her bananas; fixed her hair; organized her schedule; and so on. This led to a kind of learned helplessness that didn't stand Dunham in good stead later on.
Dunham was happy with the success of Girls, but she suffered behind the scenes. Shortly before shooting began on the pilot, Lena was diagnosed with acute colitis. While scouting the Carlyle Hotel for a shoot, Dunham had to get to a toilet every ten minutes, where she'd cling to the walls, gasp, clean herself up, then throw icy water on her face. Dunham writes, "Looking back, this was...the first time I chose to ignore my body's noisy signals in favor of this thing I wanted so badly."
Even before filming began on season one of Girls, sleep problems led Lena to take Klonopin pills, previously prescribed for anxiety. This was the beginning of Dunham's slide into drug dependence. Lena was also constantly gaining and losing weight, due to health struggles and her characterization on the show Girls.
After the first season of Girls wrapped, Dunham was set up with musician Jack Antonoff, and she went on her first real date. Before meeting Jack, Dunham would hook up with random men for sex, often unsuitable and/or abusive men. Lena describes these encounters in too much detail, particularly with a man she calls Cleft Lip, and she reveals intimate particulars no one needs to know. 
Lena Dunham and Jack Antonoff
Dunham writes a good deal about her five-year romance with Antonoff, which eventually derailed for many reasons, including Lena's increasingly severe health problems; long separations because of Jack's touring and Lena's commitment to making and promoting Girls; infidelity; etc. After the split from Jack, Lena resumed having relationships with wrong'uns, which seems to have been a compulsion.
Addressing the consequences of sudden success, Dunham writes, "One of the things I hadn't known to expect about being famous, as obvious as it now seems, is how many things people would want from you...I've been handed more scripts, novels, pitches, storyboards, and résumé cards than I could ever possibly read." She goes on, "I began to pack in coffee dates, three or four stacked on my rare free afternoons, with anyone who needed advice...A Saturday wasn't for recovering...it was for ensuring that as many people as possible had a positive perception of me." The constant and repeated requests for time, money, and favors became crippling, and contributed to Dunham's declining health.
Dunham suffered from obsessive-compulsive disorder starting in childhood, and new symptoms of distress led her to take Lexapro, Klonopin, and Benzodiazepines as (she felt) she needed. Dunham's first memoir, published at age 28, resulted in social media trolls calling her things like racist, fat, whore, ugly, ignorant rich girl, child molester (for looking at her baby sister's genitals), and more.
At about the same time, Lena's body broke down. She writes, "First came the stomachache, a mixture of stomachache and dull thudding...I could only [eat] bread...Then my period started and didn't stop. Then my mouth filled with canker sores...that stung all the time." Lena was diagnosed with endometriosis (a condition resulting from endometrial tissue growing outside the uterus), and she had surgery when she could no longer handle the pain.
Going forward, Dunham got additional medications and more surgeries, and endless days spent in bed, often with her father sitting by her side. However, there was no improvement in Dunham's health. Finally, Lena learned she also had a genetic connective tissue disorder called Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, which led to more medical procedures, and finally a hysterectomy at age 32. This was traumatic for a young woman who longed to have children one day.
In November 2017, right after her hysterectomy, Dunham and her best friend/co-showrunner Jenni Konner did something Dunham is deeply ashamed of. She doesn't expand on this in the book, but this is what happened: actress Aurora Perrineau accused Murray Miller, a writer on Girls, of sexually assaulting her when she was 17. With no evidence whatsoever, Dunham and Konner issued a statement saying Perrineau's allegation was false. The public backlash was fast and furious, and Dunham later apologized to Perrineau. Lena still deeply regrets the incident, which - among other things - soured her relationship with Konner.
To add to Dunham's problems, she and Jack Antonoff broke up after her hysterectomy. Lena was crushed, and having decided the only thing that could save her was to be wanted, Lena took up with a man she knew from childhood. Sadly, Lena's new boyfriend turned out to be an alcoholic needing a soft spot to land.
When the final season of Girls wrapped in 2017, Dunham - still suffering from nausea and pain - was taking Adderall, Klonopin, and Percoset. Dunham finally admitted she had a serious drug problem, and her parents drove her to a rehab facility called the Center for Motivation and Change. Dunham describes her experience there in detail, and explains how it helped her become clean.
The Center For Motivation and Change
Lena got a pass from rehab to attend the Met Gala
Following rehab, Dunham had to put her life back together, make amends to myriad people, and clean up the chaos left in her wake. Dunham lost friends, continued suffering from Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, tried IVF (with plans to use a surrogate), accidentally set fire to herself, had sex with random men, and navigated the Covid pandemic. 
Lena Dunham celebrating being five years drug free
Dunham also continued creating, writing, directing, and producing programs, and she worked on the series 'Camping', 'Industry', 'Genera+ion', and 'Too Much'. 
I think people would empathize with Dunham's ongoing health problems, but might not want to be her friend. In an interview, Lena herself said, "I have annoyed people since I was so small. I was an annoying kid. I was a tryhard. I was loud. I didn't always know how to move through space with other kids in a way that wasn't a little off or disruptive." Apparently, Dunham carried some of this behavior into adulthood.
Lena doesn't talk about her current life in the book, but she married musician Luis Felber in 2021, and recently had a baby via surrogate. I wish Lena luck, and I'll read her next memoir if she writes one.
Lena Dunham and Luis Felber
Lena Dunham and Luis Felber at the premiere of Too Much with stars Megan Stalter and Will Sharpe
Lena Dunham, Luis Felber, and their baby
I had a digital copy of the book as well as the audiobook, narrated by Lena Dunham, and it's good to hear Dunham tell her own story.
Rating: 4 stars
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