I was judging the L.A. Times 2020 and 2021 fiction contest. It’d be generous to call what I’d been doing upon my first cursory glance—reading. I also don’t take this task lightly. As a fellow writer and lover of words and books, I took this position—in hopes of being a good literary citizen. My heart aches for all the writers who have a debut at this time. What I can share now is the thing that held my attention and got me to read on even though it was among 296 other books I’m charged to read.

What an incredibly smart sharply written novel… I tore threw it.

“Her last period had ended after three days, and now this—whatever this was. The twenty-eight-day cycle had always been more a myth than a reality, a matter of averages or chemically enforced norms dressed up in lunar hocus-pocus, but there had been something coherent and reassuring about it. It was symbolic. Three weeks off, one week on. The week symbolized the creation and destruction, of the world. The fact that the twenty-eight days existed as a myth or standard or average had made Dorothy feel that her body, or some statistical version of it, was connected to an axis ancient and foundational. But in the new era there were no symbols or organizing metaphors. The body was ruled by irregularity. All was chaos. In a time of chaos, one had to be prepared for everything. That was it: She had to prepare. She pushed the button to get to the home screen, touched the Notes application and made a note:
Buy panty liners (pink individual wrappers).”

I very much enjoyed this story. It was wonderfully written. I look forward to the author’s next book!

This book displays the mastery of its author in several regards. The narrative voice is strong, one can easily imagine the main character and infer much about her habits and thoughts from the voice alone.
The author also does give hints along the way to keep the story interesting. There is no information dump, we learn as we go about the characters.

I can see how the topics in this book, and the candid descriptions of events such as detailed explanations of a bathroom session, can be off-putting to some. If you are reading for entertainment, I doubt this would your book. But if you are reading to gain insight into human nature and what it means to be alive, you have come to the right place.

Dorothy was a difficult character and I found myself sometimes liking her and sometimes hating her. I also wasn't prepared for the graphic nature of some of this novel, nor the extremely depressing tone. The plot drags and it lacks direction which caused me to be bored and I ended up not being able to finish. This one just wasn't for me.

Dorothy struggles at her job as an adjunct professor when her recent miscarriage makes put the focus on the minutiae of her life.

I think the book was ok, I understand the premise is basically reflected in the writing and the plot of the novel but it does get very introspective. I couldn't really feel much for Dorothy and more than that I was just waiting for her to have her moment of reckoning which didn't really happen.

Moving apocalyptic-fragmentary novel. Good enough that I look forward to seeing what Smallwood does next.

Dour is the word that springs to mind when I think about this book. It really lingers in the physical aftermath of a miscarriage of a rather tiresome person. I don't mind unpleasant or pretentious people but I was hoping for some of the promised humor to break it up. There was no real black humor here.

Christine Smallwood's debut novel is a jewel of a book, a meditation on a particular kind of mid-30s languishing. The protagonist, Dorothy, an English PhD, is in the midst of a miscarriage. Her academic career has stalled in a classically millennial fashion. It's a testament to Smallwood's powers how vibrant and often very funny "The Life of the Mind" is as it plumbs the depths of Dorothy's internal analysis and over-analysis of every situation. it also includes the best description of karaoke I have ever read.

I had high hopes for this book as it starts out really strong. The first page really grabs me and makes me feel like I'm in for a fun ride. It is hilarious and dark. But after about chapter two, I find myself bored. The story just seems to meander without really getting anywhere. I am not invested in Dorothy as a character. I get that she's an unhappy professor. I get that she miscarries (and it drags on much too long). I get that she has two therapists. But I do not get why she goes to Vegas. I do not get her friendships. This books is about endings, but it never really begins.

Thanks to Random House for recommending this book, and providing an advanced reader copy, via NetGalley. This is my honest review.

While there are some really lovely, intimate moments (or just, like, sentences I underlined because they were like "ah, yes, I know what that is.") on the whole, this book was a slim little vehicle for disaffected intellectualism. I didn't like Dorothy, but I also didn't find her to be UNlikeable... just not that fun to follow around.

Book Review for The Life of the Mind by Christine Smallwood
Full review for this title will be posted at: @fyebooks on Instagram!

Dorothy is an adjunct professor at an unnamed New York City university, adrift and directionless in both her career and her personal life; her stagnant academic career leads her to teaching, and as a professor she performs her job dispassionately.
The novel opens with Dorothy having miscarried a pregnancy she was ambivalent about to begin with, and which she chooses not to share with her therapist, her backup therapist, her best friend, Gaby, nor her mother. Contemplating the death of her academic dreams, Dorothy’s unviable pregnancy seems like another thing in her life that failed to take off. Dorothy’s internal monologue is a string of overthought observations, where she perceives slights or mistakes in the minutiae of everyday interactions. The unraveling thoughts continue to give in to more and more introspective observations, and with them a growing sense of inadequacy in Dorothy’s part. The detached way in which she interacts with everyone speaks to Dorothy’s disaffected way of living her life - she is just going through the motions. Dorothy’s insecurities and self-deprecation still manage to be humorous and almost self-aware.
Aptly titled, The Life of the Mind is about the world that is Dorothy’s mind, with Smallwood’s prose making this otherwise mundane undertaking of storytelling into a worthwhile rumination on life’s failures.

Thank you Netgalley for the ARC.

Wow. Incredible. Such a smart, cutting novel about: bodily autonomy, academia, mothering, child loss, and what it means to procreate. I loved this novel so much, a perfect contemporary contemplative read.

Smallwood's debut novel innovates on the established genre of the campus novel. Its protagonist, Dorothy, is an adjunct English professor at an undefined east-coast university, where her career in academia is on entirely uncertain ground. This is a necessary innovation on the genre. We need more novels, like this one, that take into account the deteriorating conditions of academic labor.

My major complaint is structural. There's nothing, aside from Dorothy's experience of the world, that really holds this novel together. I think Smallwood, if she writes more fiction, can become an impressive writer.

The book begins with our protagonist on the toilet and she gets a call from her therapist and then we find out that she actually has two therapists. See, she has her original therapist for her actual therapy and then she the second therapist to discuss the first therapist and if she's doing her job correctly. Quirky, right? She recently had a miscarriage, but nobody other than her boyfriend even knew she was pregnant. She has plenty of women in her life, but she remains in a state of constant isolation. Her isolation is compounded by the fact she hasn’t told her therapist, mother, or best friend about her loss. We do get backstory about Dorothy's failures in grad school as well as jealousy triggered by a rival classmate’s success. Dorthy feels like her career is stalled and her level of debt overwhelms her daily life. After a conference in Las Vegas where Dorothy runs into her peers and her mentor (ugh the mentor), she truly sees that her career is going nowhere. She comes home and attends a party thrown by Gaby only to find out that Gaby is pregnant once again. This is a fun novel with a tough sense of humor. You know things are bad when you have so many people around you but you’d rather argue and talk to the imaginary people in your mind instead. I felt some Ottessa Moshfegh in this and traces of My Year of Rest and Relaxation. Dorothy and I probably wouldn't hang out or be best friends, but I liked reading about her and I like this book. Thanks so much to Netgalley for the early ebook.

There's dismal and then there's The Life of the Mind by Christine Smallwood.

Dorothy's life doesn't have direction. She's an adjunct professor, but she knows she's not a front runner for a permanent position at her university or any others. She recently had a miscarriage, but nobody other than her boyfriend even knew she was pregnant. She has plenty of women in her life, but she remains in a state of constant isolation. In this third-person narrative tale, the reader tags along with Dorothy as she attends an underwater puppet show with her mother and her mother's surrogate daughter, a conference in Las Vegas, and a party thrown by her best friend.

This book was tough to get through. Not only because of the surprisingly graphic descriptions of the blood in Dorothy's underwear, but also because Dorothy is tiresome. I'm not sure if I was supposed to love Dorothy or hate her. If disliking her was the goal, congrats Smallwood. Listen, I completely understand that we all handle life differently, but Dorothy's constant inability to take responsibility for her failures is unreal. No, nobody has control over a miscarriage and, trust me, I'm empathetic to that, but Dorothy's miscarriage sets off a spiral that isn't even worthy of being called a spiral. I would have respected the character more if she had continuously made poor decisions and eventually hit rock bottom, but Dorothy isn't even worthy of rock bottom. She's going to stay one step up from rock bottom for the rest of her mediocre life. Dorothy describes her actions as pedantic several times during the novel, so I think it's fitting to use the same word to describe Dorothy herself.

One reason I requested this book is because others described it as having dark humor. I love dark humor, but its occurrences are so few and far in between, that I wouldn't have even thought to bring it up if others hadn't. The first line of the book, "Dorothy was taking a shit at the library when her therapist called and she let it go to voicemail", sets such a high bar, too. All in all, this book just wasn't for me.

I received a free eARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for the promise of an honest review.

DNF @25%

Such a shame! I had such high hopes for this upcoming novel from Random House. The main character was insufferable. Dorothy grossed me out and the way she overthinks everything was more than I can bear. I didn't care for the writing style at all. Very long-winded and clunky. I really tried to give this novel a chance, but it gave me a splitting headache. I like books that more plot-driven than character driven. I wish I knew that going into it.

Dorothy is an underpaid English instructor whose career fails to live up to her vision of an academic. On top of this she is weathering the aftermath of a miscarriage—a fact she chooses to hide from many key people in her life. The secrecy seems to amplify her shame and loneliness. She feels that she must shoulder her burden alone, and it's easy to speculate that this 'marching through the pain' might come from her training as an academic.

From the start, I had a hard time following Dorothy's thoughts. The story opens with her in a bathroom stall, missing a call from one of her therapists. She then muses that pregnancy has made her body an object of public interest; in reality, this is none of her therapist's business. Then again, she wishes her therapist would just tell her what to do—isn't that what she's paying her for? Dorothy later follows tangents like one about her fictional future children who live in an apocalyptic world and blame her lack of environmental activism.

I didn't find anything wrong with the writing itself, which had some entertaining and sharp observations. The constant judgments about the people around Dorothy and her self-conscious philosophizing were not for me though.

Think bleak, and Christine's Smallwood's novel lands in the right place. With third-person narration, we find out what Dorothy is thinking all the time. She is an adjunct instructor at a New York University. Dorothy's mind intensely examines her bleak position in a field where a tenured position is almost impossible, and her level of debt overwhelms her daily life. Rog, Dorothy's partner, keeps them afloat with his computer-related salary, but she wanted and thought she would have so much more if she followed those meritocracy rules.



Dorothy has few people in her life who matter to her. Aside from Rog, Gaby, her best friend, Judith, her mentor (a nasty academic type), and her two therapists, Dorothy lives in her head. I related to CS's story entirely. Dorothy is neither a likable nor an unlikeable character. It is all laid out for the reader. We are living her life, as dismal as it is, with her. I think this short novel is brilliant and hope that CS writes another soon.



Thank you to the author, Hogarth, and NetGalley for the early e-ARC of this book.

This third person narrative follows Dorothy, an adjunct professor a week into a miscarriage following an unviable pregnancy. Dorothy is out of sync with the people in her life, curling in a hard ball to avoid the caresses of her less-than-attentive boyfriend and routinely lying to her best friend. Her isolation is compounded by the fact she hasn’t told her therapist, mother, or best friend about her loss. The narrative recounts her failures in grad school in living up to her advisor’s expectations, and her jealousy triggered by a rival classmate’s success. The lingering events of her miscarriage and its subsequent doctor appointments are interwoven with humorous scenes: Dorothy goes to see second therapist to decide what to do about the first, she attends an underwater puppet show with her mother and her mother’s mentee made surrogate-daughter; she runs into an ex who used to whisper Frank O’Hara poems during sex. As the title indicates, most of the novel takes place in the mind of the narrator, and although Dorothy attends an academic conference where she comes face to face with her former advisor, readers should not expect much in the way of plot. Instead, this is a book about a perceptive mind at work. The many joys of the novel come in the narrator’s astute and humorous observations and careful and precise imagery. Smallwood is intelligent and funny, often cutting in her observations of daily life, and while it may seem that Dorothy does little more than go from one humiliating experience to another, The Life of The Mind is also a deeply moving reflection on failure, loss, and persistence.