In Praise of Messy Lives: Essays

In Praise of Messy Lives: Essays

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<b>This powerful collection of essays ranges from pop culture to politics, from Hillary Clinton to Susan Sontag, from Facebook to <i>Mad Men,</i> from Joan Didion to David Foster Wallace to€"most strikingly€"the author€s own life. For fans of the essays of John Jeremiah Sullivan and Jonathan Lethem.<br></b><br><b>NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY</b><br> <b><i>The New York Times € The Wall Street Journal</i></b><br> <br>Katie Roiphe€s writing€"whether in the form of personal essays, literary criticism, or cultural reporting€"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 €œhealthiness€ 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 <i>Mad Men,</i> the oppressiveness of Facebook (€œthe novel we are all writing€), 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 €œcelebrity profile€; and draws unexpected, timeless lessons from news-cycle hits such as Arnold Schwarzenegger€s €œlove child€ revelations. On ample display in this book are Roiphe€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 <i>Goodnight, Moon</i>. And reprinted for the first time and expanded here is her much-debated <i>New York Times Book Review</i> cover piece, €œThe Naked and the Conflicted€€"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€"on divorce, motherhood, an emotionally fraught trip to Vietnam, the breakup of a female friendship€"that are by turns deeply moving, self-critical, razor-sharp, and unapologetic in their defense of €œthe messy life.€<br><i> </i><br><i>In Praise of Messy Lives </i>is powerfully unified, vital work from one of our most astute and provocative voices.