Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl


Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl is a 2015 memoir by Carrie Brownstein, a bisexual guitarist and singer. Named for one of her lyrics, is about her life in and around music. Starting with her as a young hyper-performative young nerd, who runs for vice president of her Washington State elementary school. The story goes on to cover Brownstein's escape from a turbulent family life into a world where music was the means toward self-invention, community, and rescue. Along the way, Brownstein chronicles the excitement and contradictions within the era’s flourishing and fiercely independent music subculture, including experiences that sowed the seeds for the observational satire of the popular television series Portlandia, years later.

Publication history

Brownstein published the 256-page memoir with Riverhead, an imprint of Penguin Group, on October 27, 2015.

Reception

The book received largely positive reviews. In The Guardian, Michelle Dean compared Brownstein's writing to her band Sleater-Kinney's "intensity", saying "Brownstein’s book has a similarly fierce approach," and felt that even if "there are certainly places where an editor could and should have chiseled her prose down to make her points sharper and more affecting, this book is the clear product of a very intelligent person, and filled with flashes of insight and wit." On the other hand, in The New York Times, John Williams contrasted the tone of Hunger with Brownstein's work in Sleater-Kinney, saying "readers who have...thrilled to Ms. Brownstein’s supremely confident antics onstage...may be disappointed by this memoir’s nearly incessant tone of self-deprecation...But Ms. Brownstein is interested in telling us who she is — and how she sees herself — without a guitar in her hands. 'I was relieved that music had done exactly what I had always wanted it to do,' she writes in this both candid and evasive book, 'which was turn me into someone else.'"

Television adaptation

Brownstein was set to adapt her memoir into a half-hour television pilot, entitled Search and Destroy, for streaming service Hulu. She was set to write, direct, and executive produce alongside Megan Ellison, Sue Naegle, and Ali Krug. The pilot was being produced by Annapurna Pictures. On March 8, 2018, it was announced that Taylor Dearden and Aubrey Peeples had been cast in the show's lead roles. On May 18, 2018, it was reported that Brad Morris, Leah Harvey, Jessica Hecht, and Imogen Tear had joined the main cast.
It was announced Feb 11, 2019, that Hulu will not be going forward with the series.