A review by bethreadsandnaps
Becoming Duchess Goldblatt by Duchess Goldblatt

3.75

3.75 stars

I have never heard of this online persona of Duchess Goldblatt. I stay away from Twitter/X, which I believe was her main platform. I can see how this affirming and kind persona who would interact with her followers became such a hit, as some of her tweets are interspersed throughout the memoir.  

The real person behind the persona is a single mother and a bit reclusive, with a mostly remote writing job. I appreciated how she was so vulnerable about her bad mental place throughout this memoir. Being Duchess Goldblatt gave her a creative outlet and some popularity in the online world. 

She ends up creating a real life friendship with Lyle Lovett (country singer, was shortly married to Julia Roberts in the 1990s). He ends up being ⅓ of the book, which seems to say a lot about the author that she published so much communication between Lyle Lovett and herself. 

The author writes of her father affectionately throughout the memoir. She speaks of her manipulative and dark brother with mental illness a bit. And she doesn’t speak at all about her mother, which was notable with how much was left unsaid. It sounded like a very tough upbringing that was difficult for her to surmount.

I do worry about the mental fragility of the author and her motivation in writing. My assessment is that she has a lot of work to do on her mental health or needs to seek out therapy/meds, and it felt like writing this memoir was a money grab. 

This memoir made me think that even when we think we know a celebrity, we only know the persona, not the actual person.