Larissa Pham writes in a manner that is both lyrical and matter-of-fact, and that’s one of the best things about Pop Song.

I’m not big on personal memoirs and am one of the few who doesn’t care much to hear about the private lives of strangers, but Pham does a good job of tying her own personal experiences to things that are of interest to someone like me.

She’s at her best when she’s ruminating on art—whether that be her own or museum pieces—and she brings some truly unique critical thought to the conversation about artists and works with which we are familiar. Her discussions of her own art are equally interesting. I was particularly fascinated by her thoughts on ekphrases.

I also enjoyed her narration of her experiences in Shanghai, both from a socio-cultural and a travelogue perspective.

I read this as an audiobook, which I think is the best method for its consumption.

There is a lot to like in Pop Song. Pham is both intimate and scholarly, disclosing and discursive, open and hurt, angry and hopeful. A collection of personal essays tinged with scholarly discussions of art, the book turns out to describe the arc of a relationship, moving back through her life all through to the aftermath. She addresses her (former) love directly in the second person throughout the book, and while I've found "you" to be off-putting or precious in other places, here it works because Pham is almost always talking about how "you" made her feel or how she reacted to "you" or what she wanted and needed. There are some heavy subjects in here around bondage, racial fetishes, commercialization of art, and social media commodification of "authentic" lives among others. there are also some great descriptions of art and artists and how and why they matter both in general and to her. Really enjoyed this work.

What does the journey of falling in and out of love sound like? Larissa Pham’s debut collection, POP SONG, offers you deep thoughts and one-liners to carry with you throughout all of your relationships.

Larissa Pahm is an artist and writer living in Brooklyn. She has written essays and criticisms for the Paris Review, The Nation, Guernica, Art in America, just to name a few.

In POP SONG, Pham examines the restlessness of your 20’s, struggles with intimacy, and relationships in general, through pop cultural references and criticism. This collection is a snapshot of love in the late 2010’s and early 2020’s, one that we’ll look back on a decade from now with nostalgia.

The writing is empathetic towards its readers, subjects, and the narrator. Readers will find themselves in several of the pieces in this collection. Just how Pham learns about herself through other people, readers will learn about themselves through Pham. This collection is highly recommended.

This post was possible thanks to an audiobook provided for free by the publishers via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

*received for free from netgalley for honest review* This was just not really my cup of tea, it was an interesting read but not something id buy myself.

Unfortunately, I didn't get along with this book. I think my main gripe with Pop Song is that its essays felt aimless and a little discombobulated. Each essay drew on too many sources, incorporated too many ideas and concepts, that in the end I was left confused as to what the real focus was supposed to be. I also struggled with the writing; I wasn't sure why, exactly, but I think it felt like it was trying to achieve a profundity that it just didn't have, or couldn't reach.. I felt this especially at the end of the essays, where the reader was supposed to get the sentences that really clinched the whole point of the essay. Those sentences though underwhelmed me more than anything. They deflated the tension that the essays were building rather than accentuating or resolving that tension. Overall, I just didn't think this collection was for me.

Thank you so much to Penguin for the audiobook review copy!