Katie Roiphe
This powerful collection of essays ranges from pop culture to politics, from Hillary Clinton to Susan Sontag, from Facebook to ,Mad Men,, from Joan Didion to David Foster Wallace toâ€”most strikinglyâ€”the authorâ€™s own life. For fans of the essays of John Jeremiah Sullivan and Jonathan Lethem.,Named one of the best books of the year by ,The New York Times â€¢ The Wall Street Journal, Katie Roipheâ€™s writing â€” whether in the form of personal essays, literary criticism, or cultural reporting â€” is bracing, wickedly entertaining, and deeply engaged with our mores and manners. In these pages, she turns her exacting gaze on the surprisingly narrow-minded conventions governing the way we live now. Is there a preoccupation with â€œhealthinessâ€ above all else? If so, does it lead insidiously to judging anyone who tries to live differently? Examining such subjects as the current fascination with ,Mad Men,, the oppressiveness of Facebook (â€œthe novel we are all writingâ€), and the quiet malice our society displays toward single mothers, Roiphe makes her case throughout these electric pages. She profiles a New York prep school grad turned dominatrix; isolates the exact, endlessly repeated ingredients of a magazine â€œcelebrity profileâ€; and draws unexpected, timeless lessons from news-cycle hits such as Arnold Schwarzeneggerâ€™s â€œlove childâ€ revelations. On ample display in this book are Roipheâ€™s insightful, occasionally obsessive takes on an array of literary figures, including Jane Austen, John Updike, Susan Sontag, Joan Didion, and Margaret Wise Brown, the troubled author of ,Goodnight, Moon,. And reprinted for the first time and expanded here is her much-debated ,New York Times Book Review, cover piece, â€œThe Naked and the Conflictedâ€ â€” an unabashed argument on sex and the contemporary American male writer that is in itself an exciting and refreshing reminder that criticism matters. As steely-eyed in examining her own life as she is in skewering our cultural pitfalls, Roiphe gives us autobiographical pieces â€” on divorce, motherhood, an emotionally fraught trip to Vietnam, the breakup of a female friendship â€” that are by turns deeply moving, self-critical, razor-sharp, and unapologetic in their defense of â€œthe messy life.â€,In Praise of Messy Lives ,is powerfully unified, vital work from one of our most astute and provocative voices.
Writing,Essays,Nonfiction,Feminism,Autobiography,Memoir,Parenting,Criticism,Literary Criticism,Literature,American,Womens,Literature,21st Century,Biography
In Praise of Messy Lives: Essays