Joan Rivers was more than a leg­endary come­di­an; she was an icon and a role mod­el to mil­lions, a fear­less pio­neer who left a lega­cy of expand­ed oppor­tu­ni­ty when she died in 2014. Her life was a dra­mat­ic roller-coast­er of tri­umphant highs and dev­as­tat­ing lows: the sui­cide of her hus­band, her feud with John­ny Car­son, her estrange­ment from her daugh­ter, her many plas­tic surg­eries, her fero­cious ambi­tion and her mas­sive inse­cu­ri­ties. But Rivers’ career was also huge­ly sig­nif­i­cant in Amer­i­can cul­tur­al his­to­ry, break­ing down bar­ri­ers for her gen­der and push­ing the bound­aries of truth-telling for women in pub­lic life.

A juicy, inti­mate biog­ra­phy of one of the great­est come­di­ans ever‑a per­former whose six­ty year career was borne, sim­ply, out of a desire to make peo­ple laugh so she could feel loved, Last Girl Before Free­way delves into the inner work­ings of a woman who both reflect­ed and rede­fined the world around her.