Delusions of Grandeur

American Essays

This title was previously available on NetGalley and is now archived.
Buy on Amazon Buy on BN.com Buy on Bookshop.org
*This page contains affiliate links, so we may earn a small commission when you make a purchase through links on our site at no additional cost to you.
Send NetGalley books directly to your Kindle or Kindle app

1
To read on a Kindle or Kindle app, please add kindle@netgalley.com as an approved email address to receive files in your Amazon account. Click here for step-by-step instructions.
2
Also find your Kindle email address within your Amazon account, and enter it here.
Pub Date Oct 01 2020 | Archive Date Oct 30 2020

Talking about this book? Use #DelusionsofGrandeur #NetGalley. More hashtag tips!


Description

In Delusions of Grandeur Joey Franklin examines the dreams and delusions of America’s most persistent mythologies—including the beliefs in white supremacy and rugged individualism and the problems of toxic masculinity and religious extremism—as they reveal themselves in the life of a husband and father fast approaching forty. With prose steeped in research and a playful, lyric attention to language, Franklin asks candid questions about what it takes to see clearly as a citizen, a parent, a child, a neighbor, and a human being.

How should a white father from the suburbs talk with his sons about the death of Trayvon Martin? What do video games like Fortnite and Minecraft reveal about our appetites for destruction? Is it possible for Americans to celebrate bootstrap pioneer history while also lamenting the slavery that made it possible? How does the American tradition of exploiting cheap labor create a link between coal mining and plasma donation in southeast Ohio?

Part cultural critique, part parental confessional, Delusions of Grandeur embraces the notion that the personal is always political, and reveals important, if sometimes uncomfortable, truths about our American obsessions with race, class, religion, and family.

In Delusions of Grandeur Joey Franklin examines the dreams and delusions of America’s most persistent mythologies—including the beliefs in white supremacy and rugged individualism and the problems of...


Advance Praise

“Franklin writes like a novelist, reasons like a theologian, and reminds us that getting it right, in both language and life, is all that matters in the end.”—Dennis Covington, author of Salvation on Sand Mountain


“I’m a serious admirer of Joey Franklin’s work, and this book gathers some of his very best and most culturally and politically relevant, nuanced, balanced, and penetrating essays—which, properly and widely read, might actually deepen and widen the conversation, at least a little.”—David Shields, author of The Trouble with Men: Reflections on Sex, Love, Marriage, Porn, and Power


“With candor, modesty, and a leavening of humor, he ponders sexual shame, dysfunctional families, class divisions, apocalyptic religion, and other difficult issues, inviting the reader to join him in the search for understanding.”—Scott Russell Sanders, author of The Way of Imagination


“Over the course of these ten essays, Franklin does not simply dig into the classic pillars of the self, like gender or family; he also interrogates myriad other influences that contribute to his reality with an unflinching clarity, including class, intergenerational wealth and trauma, faith and fear, ambition and envy.”—Elena Passarello, author of Let Me Clear My Throat and Animals Strike Curious Poses

“Franklin writes like a novelist, reasons like a theologian, and reminds us that getting it right, in both language and life, is all that matters in the end.”—Dennis Covington, author of Salvation on...


Available Editions

EDITION Other Format
ISBN 9781496212108
PRICE $19.95 (USD)
PAGES 216

Average rating from 6 members


Featured Reviews

Loved the premise, but ultimately didn’t fall in love with the writing as much as I hoped to. Wishing the author best of luck with the release though!

Was this review helpful?

There are people we all know who can see the world for what it really is. They are able to see past the surface and go to the essence of a matter. Joey Franklin is one such person.

Franklin's writing style is easy and conversational. He begins most of his essays with a personal story and then ties it into the larger point he's trying to make. This makes them all charming and easy to read.

I recommend this book.

Was this review helpful?

**I received and voluntarily read an e-ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.**

It's always nice to look at things through someone else's eyes, which is basically what this book was for me.

The essays were nice, made me think a little deeper about things and helped me see a couple of connections that I hadn't seen before. Homelessness, racism, and more are all addressed in a manner that begins with a personal story then expands into the essay. As a white woman without children from a lower income area of the south, as expected, I didn't connect with the author and some of his points of view.

While addressing so many issues, one major current issue left untouched was the MeToo movement. As the author is a male with only boy children, it may never have crossed his mind to address such an issue, however, the lack of any essays even briefly touching on such a major issue is glaringly obvious.

Overall, I liked the idea of the book, but the execution fell flat for me.

Was this review helpful?

“Delusions of Grandeur” is a compilation of 10 thought-provoking essays by Joey Franklin, an associate professor of English at BYU. In it, he addresses serious (and timely) cultural and political issues, such as classism, toxic masculinity, systemic racism, the “rage machine” of social media and much more. He also grapples with how to be a white, minivan-driving dad living in the suburbs—all while trying to be a good citizen. “Self-deception serves nicely as a defense mechanism against the fact that most of us have no idea what we’re doing.”

I very much appreciated Franklin’s easy-going writing style, his self-deprecating humor and his ability to “go there.” For instance, he brings up the uncomfortable topics that we’re all thinking about but no one wants to talk about, let alone publish in black and white text! He encourages us to engage in the hard, humbling work of understanding each other (and ourselves).

“Certainly I am as inclined as anyone to run away from uncomfortable truths, but for too long, delusional thinking has been killing us softly, one narcissistic fairy tale at a time. As I approach middle age, I find myself less enamored of convenient myths and more willing to accommodate those uncomfortable truths—especially if they carry the promise of a little clarity. And if there is a genre that can handle the pitch and yaw of discomfort, it’s the essay.”

I recommend this book for those who are on a similar journey of looking within and across the proverbial aisle.

Special thanks to the University of Nebraska Press, via NetGalley, for an electronic copy in exchange for my review.

Was this review helpful?

While this book does touch on a lot of really important topics relevant now, unfortunately I just didn’t click with the writing style of the author. Ultimately, while personal perspectives are very important- I’m not sure this is the most appropriate or pressing voice to be hearing right now.

Was this review helpful?

Readers who liked this book also liked: