In Praise of Messy Lives

Thispowerful collection of essays ranges from pop culture to politics, from HillaryClinton to Susan Sontag, from Facebook to Mad Men, from Joan Didion toDavid Foster Wallace to-most strikingly-the author's own life. For fans of theessays of John Jeremiah Sullivan and Jonathan Lethem.

Katie Roiphe's writing-whether in the form of personal essays, literarycriticism, or cultural reporting-is bracing, wickedly entertaining, and deeplyengaged with our mores and manners. In these pages, she turns her exacting gazeon the surprisingly narrow-minded conventions governing the way we live now. Isthere a preoccupation with "healthiness" above all else? If so, does it leadinsidiously to judging anyone who tries to live differently? Examining suchsubjects as the current fascination with Mad Men, the oppressiveness ofFacebook ("the novel we are all writing"), and the quiet malice our societydisplays toward single mothers, Roiphe makes her case throughout these electricpages. She profiles a New York prep school grad turned dominatrix; isolates theexact, endlessly repeated ingredients of a magazine "celebrity profile"; anddraws unexpected, timeless lessons from news-cycle hits such as ArnoldSchwarzenegger's "love child" revelations. On ample display in this book areRoiphe's insightful, occasionally obsessive takes on an array of literaryfigures, including Jane Austen, John Updike, Susan Sontag, Joan Didion, andMargaret Wise Brown, the troubled author of Goodnight, Moon. Andreprinted for the first time and expanded here is her much-debated New YorkTimes Book Review cover piece, "The Naked and the Conflicted"-an unabashedargument on sex and the contemporary American male writer that is in itself anexciting and refreshing reminder that criticism matters. As steely-eyed inexamining her own life as she is in skewering our cultural pitfalls, Roiphegives us autobiographical pieces-on divorce, motherhood, an emotionally fraughttrip to Vietnam, the breakup of a female friendship-that are by turns deeplymoving, self-critical, razor-sharp, and unapologetic in their defense of "themessy life."

In Praise of Messy Lives is powerfully unified, vital work from one ofour most astute and provocative voices.

KatieRoiphe received her Ph.D. from Princeton in English literature. Her articleshave appeared in the New York Times, The Washington Post, Slate, Esquire,Vogue, Harper's, and The New Yorker. Her previous books include TheMorning After, Last Night in Paradise, and a novel, Still She Haunts Me.She lives in New York.

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