Tiffany Haddish reminds her readers of keeping hope and love alive through the darkest of moments in her new memoir, “The Last Black Unicorn.” In the book, she reveals hope and love as the two emotions that helped her endure the abuse of her mentally ill mother, living in her car in Beverly Hills, California and many other hardships. While Haddish’s life has met many mishaps, she considers them lessons that helped her achieve success and fame with her breakout film, “Girls Trip.”
The book breaks apart into 14 sections that describe Haddish’s difficulties with becoming a good daughter to her mother, dealing with her ex-boyfriend, her ex-husband and becoming a comedian in Los Angeles.
From the introduction page, Haddish portrays herself as someone who wants to live her life, learn from her mistakes and make people believe in themselves no matter what stands in their way. This is a reoccurring theme in the book. She creates a feeling of hope through her writing that many of her readers can connect with. In the book, she encourages her readers to feel hopeful for whatever they are endeavoring by making them feel like they are having a one-on-one conversation with her. It makes the book feel more personal.
The book touches upon many personal moments in Haddish’s life. One of these moments includes the time she struggled with reading complete sentences in high school. Haddish tried to keep her struggle from everyone, especially her crush. However, when she found out her crush had joined the school play, she joined too with the dream of being cast as the lead. When she was chosen to read a part of the script aloud and struggled to do so, her drama teacher offered to teach her to read.
Haddish mentions her struggle to make enough money that led her to live in her car. It wasn’t until Kevin Hart, her “comedy guardian angel,” noticed her belongings in her car and gave her $300 for a one-night stay at a hotel along with the task of writing a list of goals that her luck began to change. Haddish followed Hart’s advice, which allowed her to start her journey toward becoming a breakout comedian in the entertainment industry.
Haddish’s goal for the book was not just to tell her story or make people feel bad for her. It was to inspire and motivate her audience to work just as hard as her to reach their goals. Haddish gives her audience a sense of hope from describing her own struggles and challenges when working toward her newfound success in Hollywood. She gives the readers a clear understanding that no matter what situation they are in, they can overcome obstacles to reach their goals.
