Jemima Kirke’s 10 favourite books
Jemima Kirke is probably best known for her role as Jessa in Girls. A character so iconic and defining, Kirke herself has detailed the feeling of worry about always living in Jessa’s shadow, once going as far as to confess: “For some reason, people think I’m Jessa”.
That said, there are some crossovers between Kirke and Jessa. In fact, Jessa was loosely based on Kirke, written with the actor in mind by her childhood friend and the show’s creator, Lena Dunham. At the time, Kirke had just finished studying painting at the Rhode Island School of Design when Dunham dreamed up the role, partly based on the person whom Kirke was in college and “partly based off of people [they] knew, or mutual friends, or people in the media that [they] could make fun of”.
As a person, Kirke carries the same artistic streak as Jessa. The daughter of the Free drummer Simon Kirke and a boutique owner who provided costumes for Sex And The City, Kirke and her two sisters have all taken creative routes.
Now, with many roles under her belt, including playing Melissa in the TV adaptation of Sally Rooney’s novel Conversations With Friends, Kirke creativity takes the form of acting, painting and being an avid reader. Sharing her ‘desert island books’ with One Grand, her top ten favourite books are an eclectic mix of photography books, classic novels, and modern takes.
The first choice is Andres De Dienes’ Marilyn, a collection of rare photos of Marilyn Monroe interwoven with a memoir about the photographer’s friendship with the star. Kirke describes the images as “some of the most important pictures taken of Marilyn Monroe”, especially loving the “catharsis of it”.
Similarly, in keeping with Kirke’s interest in nostalgia and old Hollywood, she picks out Kenneth Anger’s salacious Hollywood Babylon, describing it as “delicious Hollywood gossip”. Essentially a log of rumours, drama and whisper, Anger’s book comprises short, sharp sections that make for a “great beach read”, according to Kirke. “Or better yet, a great book to have read to you while performing some inane and tedious task,” she added.
But it’s not all glamour and hearsay. Kirke also picks out some incredibly sinister and sad titles, describing herself as “inclined to morbidity”. One such pick is Emile Zola’s Thérèse Raquin, an 1800s novel about a young woman forced into an unhappy marriage, which Kirke summarises as a “morbid thriller/love story about self sabotage”. Similarly, Georges Bataille’s Story Of The Eye stands out to her as a guilty pleasure favourite book that leaves her “sickened”.
Short stories and plays also seem to appeal to Kirke as she picks out both Willa Cather’s “good little novella” My Mortal Enemy, alongside The Theatre Of Tennesee Williams, which features “some of Tennessee Williams’s short plays, ones that were rarely performed or produced”. Kirke’s favourite in the collection is ‘The Rain’, which she describes as one of the “saddest things” she’s ever read.
As for the classics, Kirke’s copy of Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights is “all warped and sticky” from her tears. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Beautiful and the Damned also stands as one that Kirke claims to be “the most stylish book you’ll ever read”, making her want to “jump inside it just to go shopping”.
Alongside the novels, Kirke also picks out some non-fictional books, especially on the topics of feminism and motherhood. Essayist Rachel Cusk lists A Life’s Work: On Becoming A Mother, a book which Kirke describes as “a sensitive and existential analysis of the heartache of being a mother”. To Kirke, this is essential reading, stating “no mother should leave these pages unturned”. Similarly, Laura Pennie’s Unspeakable Things: Sex, Lies and Revolution “untangles the smallest, most insidious ways that we all contribute to preserving the patriarchy”.
A book of vital importance to Kirke, she says she’ll now never “participate in conversation about feminism that leaves out class and race”. See the full list below.
Jemima Kirke’s 10 favourite books:
- André De Dienes – André De Dienes: Marilyn
- Kenneth Anger – Hollywood Babylon
- Rachel Cusk – A Life’s Work: On Becoming A Mother
- Willa Cather – My Mortal Enemy
- Georges Bataille – Story Of The Eye
- Tennessee Williams – The Theatre Of Tennessee Williams: 27 Wagons Full Of Cotton And Other Short Plays
- Laura Pennie – Unspeakable Things: Sex, Lies And Revolution
- F. Scott Fitzgerald – The Beautiful And Damned
- Emily Brontë – Wuthering Heights
- Emile Zola – Thérèse Raquin
