The life story, then, is not the most promising of forms for an intellectual–not only because it is allergic to ideas but because intellectuals are not renowned for their enthralling lives.

The Life of the Party shines in the moments when it doesn’t just tell Deanna she can be more than the narrow roles of wife and mother she has been forced into, but also that those roles have value.

Life of the Party is not an ironic title: Deanna literally ends up as the authentically celebrated life of the party at Decatur U.