The unspeakable : and other subjects of discussion / Meghan Daum.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Daum, Meghan, 1970- author.

Standardized Title:

Essays. Selections

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Essays.

Physical Description:

244 pages ; 22 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

New York : Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2014.

Summary:

"A master of the personal essay candidly explores love, death, and the counterfeit rituals of American life In her celebrated 2001 collection, My Misspent Youth, Meghan Daum offered a bold, witty, defining account of the artistic ambitions, financial anxieties, and mixed emotions of her generation. The Unspeakable is an equally bold and witty, but also a sadder and wiser, report from early middle age. It's a report tempered by hard times. In "Matricide," Daum unflinchingly describes a parent's death and the uncomfortable emotions it provokes; and in "Diary of a Coma" she relates her own journey to the twilight of the mind. But Daum also operates in a comic register. With perfect precision, she reveals the absurdities of the marriage-industrial complex, of the New Age dating market, and of the peculiar habits of the young and digital. Elsewhere, she writes searchingly about cultural nostalgia, Joni Mitchell, and the alternating heartbreak and liberation of choosing not to have children. Combining the piercing insight of Joan Didion with a warm humor reminiscent of Nora Ephron, Daum dissects our culture's most dangerous illusions, blind spots, and sentimentalities while retaining her own joy and compassion. Through it all, she dramatizes the search for an authentic self in a world where achieving an identity is never simple and never complete"-- Provided by publisher.

"Essays on American sentimentality and its impact on the way we think about death, children, patriotism, and other matters"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Matricide 9

The Best Possible Experience 45

Not What It Used to Be 73

Honorary Dyke 91

Difference Maker 113

The Joni Mitchell Problem 149

The Dog Exception 167

On Not Being a Foodie 183

Invisible City 199

Diary of a Coma 219.

ISBN:

9780374280444

0374280444

OCLC:

882620066

Online:

Cover image