My Misspent Youth: Essays
by Meghan Daum
List Price:
Our Price: $4.99
You Save: $9.01 (64%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $0.20 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: Meghan DaumEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2001-03-15
ISBN: 1890447269
Number of pages: 180
Publisher: Grove Press, Open City Books
Book Reviews of My Misspent Youth: Essays
Book Review: Reflections on lives as simulations
Summary: 4 Stars
In this highly autobiographical and entertaining collection of essays, the author offers insight into American culture that both informs and questions. From a Gen-X perspective, she focuses on the changing cultural realities of the 80s and 90s that undermine long-held beliefs. In addition, she turns a critical eye on her affluent adolescence in suburban New Jersey.
While it may be off-putting to some readers, it quickly becomes evident that the author approaches her subjects from a cultural elitist standpoint. She readily admits that she sought admission to Vassar to rub elbows with NYC elites to gain their cultural sophistication, as well as a sense of self-entitlement. In "Toy Children" she found the insistence that she play with dolls to be no more than an attempt to keep her in perpetual childhood. Forced by her musician parents to play the oboe, in "Music is My Bag" she grew to immensely dislike the nerdiness of the music culture. In an essay that overreaches, "Carpet is Mungers," wall-to-wall carpet, for the author, symbolizes everything ordinary - hence to be rejected. For her it is oak floors and Oriental rugs - or nothing.
In a more practical offering, "My Misspent Youth," the author decries the fact that NYC has become virtually unaffordable for an aspiring cultural worker - editorial assistant, writer, etc. Yet, she admits that her feelings of entitlement led to her assuming a sixty-thousand dollar debt for a three year MFA program at Columbia. "Inside the Tube" captures the diminished status of airline attendants, yet, they are "in a sense, quintessential Americans. They are at once rootless souls and permanent fixtures, vagabonds who can't stay anywhere too long."
Love and relationships are represented. She finds the members of the California-based Ravenheart polyamorous commune to be self-deluding to think that their multi-partner lifestyle verifies their self-proclaimed outsider status, being hardly different than common activities under other names. The author profiles the needy quest of the bland American blonde for Jewish men in "American Shiksa."
In the most interesting essay of the collection, "On the Fringes of the Physical World," the author details her intense multi-month email romance that transcended any real-world relationships, only to have it all suddenly collapse after meeting. She sees that "our need to worship fuses with our need to be worhsipped."
As the author claims, these essays are commentary on the authenticity of American life, on the degree to which we live fictional narratives. The essays strike an idealistic tone, perhaps are a bit arrogant, but they are perceptive, entertaining, and even unsettling. They are easy to read.
History Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Audiobooks on Cassette
- Audiobooks on CD
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- e-Books
- Engineering
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Medicine
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in An Eclectic List of Nonfiction Favorites
Are You Ready to Succeed? Unconventional Strategies to Achieving Personal Mastery in Business and Lifeby Srikumar S. Rao
Hyperion; Published: 2006-01-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $6.86
Price in other shops:
The Art and Craft of Feature Writing: Based on The Wall Street Journal Guideby William E. Blundell
Plume; Published: 1988-11-29; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.89
Price in other shops:
Follow the Story: How to Write Successful Nonfictionby James B. Stewart
Simon & Schuster; Published: 1998-10-14; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.91
Price in other shops:
The Know-It-All: One Man's Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the Worldby A. J. Jacobs
Simon & Schuster; Published: 2005-10-04; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.92
Price in other shops:
Gig: Americans Talk About Their JobsThree Rivers Press; Published: 2001-08-21; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.94
Price in other shops:
Working Identity: Unconventional Strategies for Reinventing Your Careerby Herminia Ibarra
Harvard Business School Press; Published: 2004-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $10.42
Price in other shops:
New Normal, The : Great Opportunities in a Time of Great Riskby Roger McNamee, David Diamond
Published: 2004-11-18; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $3.39
Price in other shops:
StartupNation : America's Leading Entrepreneurial Experts Reveal the Secrets to Building a Blockbuster Businessby Jeff Sloan, Rich Sloan
Doubleday Business; Published: 2005-05-17; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.78
Price in other shops:
Free Agent Nation: The Future of Working for Yourselfby Daniel H. Pink
Business Plus; Published: 2002-05-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.97
Price in other shops:
Five Men Who Broke My Heart: A Memoirby Susan Shapiro
Delacorte Press; Published: 2004-01-20; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $3.09
Price in other shops:
Similar books summaries and other product reviews
Life As We Know It : A Collection of Personal Essays from Salon.comby Jennifer Foote Sweeney
Published: 2003-10-21; Paperback; Book
Best price: $18.27
The Secret Historyby Donna Tartt
Vintage; Published: 2004-04-13; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.71
Price in other shops:
The Partly Cloudy Patriotby Sarah Vowell, Katherine Streeter
Simon & Schuster; Published: 2002-09-05; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $22.67
The Situation and the Story: The Art of Personal Narrativeby Vivian Gornick
Farrar, Straus and Giroux; Published: 2002-10-11; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.09
Price in other shops:
The Lost Fatherby Mona Simpson
Vintage; Published: 1993-01-11; Paperback; Book
Best price: $0.79
Price in other shops:
When You Are Engulfed in Flamesby David Sedaris
Little, Brown and Company; Published: 2008-06-03; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $11.94
Price in other shops:
Don't Get Too Comfortable: The Indignities of Coach Class, The Torments of Low Thread Count, The Never- Ending Quest for Artisanal Olive Oil, and Other First World Problemsby David Rakoff
Broadway; Published: 2006-09-12; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.86
Price in other shops:
Slouching Towards Bethlehem: Essaysby Joan Didion
Farrar, Straus and Giroux; Published: 1990-10-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.49
Price in other shops:
I Was Told There'd Be Cakeby Sloane Crosley
Riverhead Trade; Published: 2008-04-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.52
Price in other shops:
The Quality of Life Reportby Meghan Daum
Published: 2003-04-30; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $4.53
Price in other shops: