4 stars.

Got unopened Amazon packages piling up at your house? I think I have eight on my dining room table as I type this. If you are anything like me, this is for you, because we are Americans, so most of us amass. The description of the book makes it seem like this will be a study on why we buy and gather and discard what we do, but that really isn’t accurate. The book is more a biography of the author’s life in commerce, and being raised by a dad and around a grandmother who were both hoarders. Her dad is rich, her grandmother was a teacher in Iowa, so they came at amassing goods from different perspectives, but they shared a common psychology; more is better.

Then the author recounts her time as an Ulta salesperson and her stint at fat camp, as well as family trips to Costco to look at her own relationship with stuff.

Really enjoyed this book. The author has a strong narrative voice and she kept me engaged even though I’ve read other, similar stories.

This series of essays had some interesting concepts and themes but it felt surface level and lacked reflective depth. The writing felt more navel-gazing and narrative than interrogation and unpacking. There was also a fair amount of repetition of topics that had already been explored in previous essays that felt like I was rereading the same story rather than building towards a bigger concept. Cool idea for a book but could have used more comprehensive analysis

Americans consume more than any other country on earth, this book delves into the how we got here moment and how we can stop buying so much stuff. Intertwined are the economic, environmental and social factors that push the drive for more. Recommended for anyone who ever went to Costco and thought, why did I buy 12 tubes of toothpaste at once!

This was a brilliant read by someone who could speak honestly about the excesses of life. We follow Emily through school, fat camp, work and family and how we allow excess to infiltrate our daily lives materially.

I found this book very thought provoking and, in places, relatable.

Never before have I had my vices laid bare like this, ouch.
Getting to the crux of the matter, Emily sifts through the many ways in which consumption has gone off the rails. Unique to these essays, I don't get the sense she's riled up. American Bulk is more of an elucidation than anything. A welcomed reprieve from the rousing (and rightly so) critique I've grown accustomed to.

Emily Mester dissects consumption with a nostalgic air. Drive thru ordering, guests visiting from out of town, online shopping. Our never ceasing transition from one screen to another. What a 3 star rating <i>really</i> means. The contagion that are bed people. Baby dolls with one "skill" that is a skill in the way a baby reaching milestones is a skill - not a "skill-skill", recognized by the masses. Our unfortunate front row seat to The Mall and online shopping's coup. The jump scare that is Spirit Halloween, fully stocked and open for business out of thin air. If you can't tell, I identified with a lot of it.

The description for this collection does seem a bit misleading in hindsight; a few times I felt my thoughts start to wander when the essays stayed on a personal tangent for too long. While most of the anecdotes did add <i>something</i> to the essays, it just wasn't what I thought I was signing on for. And if I wasn't also a white woman who grew up in the middle class, masquerading as upper, I'm not sure I'd have appreciated the tangents as much - if at all. "White American Bulk" may be a more accurate title? That being said, take my review with a grain of salt.

{Thank you bunches to NetGalley, Emily Mester and W.W. Norton for the eARC in exchange for my honest review!}

I am normally not a non fiction gal, but I find myself increasingly interested in the topics of consumerismand waste, so I decided to check this book out, and I really enjoyed it. The author tells a lot of personal stories about her own growing up and realizations and lessons with consumerist culture, and it was interesting to see it through her eyes. Lots of good lessons to be learned and points made.

American Bulk is a series of personal essays about consumption and the American family, as Emily Mester explores her own history with consumerism and the ways it has been part of her life and upbringing. In short essays exploring topics like American chain restaurants, working in retail, and hoarder family members, Mester exposes herself and her family to look at appetite and consumption, and things we might automatically see as bad or shameful, whilst asking why this happens.

I was intrigued by the concept of exploring American 'bulk' culture and consumption, though actually this book is more focused on personal history and is more of a memoir in essays than 'essays on excess' more broadly. That's not to say that it isn't engaging, but it doesn't really draw what it depicts into comparison with wider American culture that much, and I think there were obvious areas where it could've gone deeper, particularly as many of the essays seem to start to reflect on class and its relationship to consumption, but often returns to the personal rather than go further with that. However, it is more of a memoir that focuses on an ongoing story of Mester's grandmother's abandoned house and what it says about her wider family's hoarding and consumption, which I think some people will prefer, but for me I wanted more of the cultural stuff.

As an ending note, there is an essay about leaving reviews which makes reviewing this book almost ironic, particularly as the conclusion of that essay seems to be not to review because you don't know the impact of that review. So, I suppose, take this review with the grain of salt that maybe we shouldn't be reviewing at all...

Told with beautiful writing that’s cutting, subtle, and relatable all at once, Mester uses a memoir style to illustrate why it’s important to approach consumerism with empathy and how individuals are just tools in capitalism’s constant extraction. Be it money, energy, health, self-esteem, joie de vivre… capitalists won’t stop until they take everything from everyone.

The structure was artful. Every section of this was well done and thought-provoking. The standouts for me were Mester’s reflections on fat camp, her experience working at Ulta, and her commentary on review culture. The three-part story about her Grandma was so emotional and raw: Mester skillfully applied tension around the state of her Grandma’s house in Storm Lake.

This book is also an artfully crafted slice-of-life/slice-of-time of the Midwest in Mester’s and her dad’s time. Mester’s writing transported me to restaurants, malls, and small town America so authentically!

It’s easy to feel repulsed/angered by the flagrant excess that Mester describes but, equally, it stirred a compassion in me for how her family was not coping with the weight of ambivalence. Her self-awareness around her privileged upbringing and her consumerist tendencies was refreshing, honest, and brutal. Putting herself out there so openly with this memoir is commendable!

A well-written, intelligent, and accessible commentary on excess, I enjoyed the time I spent with this book and I’m genuinely excited for what Mester writes next.

I was privileged to have my request to read this book accepted through NetGalley. Thank you so much, W. W. Norton! ✨