Abominations: Selected Essays from a Career of Courting Self-Destruction
304Abominations: Selected Essays from a Career of Courting Self-Destruction
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Overview
A striking collection of essays from the prize-winning, New York Times bestselling author of Should We Stay or Should We Go, So Much for That, and The Post-Birthday World.
Novelist, cultural observer, and social satirist Lionel Shriver is among the sharpest talents of our age. A writer who embraces “under-expressed, unpopular or downright dangerous” points of view, she filets cherished shibboleths and the conformity of thought and attitude that has overtaken us.
Bringing together thirty-five works curated from her many columns, features, essays, and op-eds for the likes of the Spectator, the Guardian, the New York Times, Harper’s Magazine, the Wall Street Journal, speeches and reviews, and some unpublished pieces, Abominations reveals Shriver at her most iconoclastic and personal. Relentlessly skeptical, cutting, and contrarian, this collection showcases Shriver’s piquant opinions on a wide range of topics, including religion, politics, illness, mortality, family and friends, tennis, gender, immigration, consumerism, health care, and taxes.
In her characteristically frank manner, Shriver shrewdly skewers the concept of language “crimes,” while chafing at arbitrary limitations on speech and literature that crimp artistic expression and threaten intellectual freedom. Many an essay in Abominations reflects sentiments that have “brought hell and damnation down on my head,” as she cheerfully explains, and have threatened her with “cancellation” more than once.
Throughout, Shriver offers insights on her novels and explores the perks and pitfalls of becoming a successful artist. In revisiting old pieces and rejected essays, Shriver updates and expands her thinking. “Enlightened” progressive readers will find plenty to challenge here. But they may find, to their surprise, insights with which they agree.
A timely synthesis of Shriver's expansive work, Abominations reveals this provocative, talented writer at her most assured.
Product Details
ISBN-13: | 9780063094307 |
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Publisher: | HarperCollins |
Publication date: | 09/17/2024 |
Pages: | 304 |
Product dimensions: | 5.31(w) x 8.00(h) x (d) |
About the Author
Hometown:
Brooklyn, New York, and London, EnglandDate of Birth:
May 18, 1957Place of Birth:
Gastonia, North CarolinaEducation:
B.A., Barnard College of Columbia University, 1978; M.F.A. in Fiction Writing, Columbia University, 1982Website:
http://www.talkaboutkevin.comTable of Contents
Introduction 1
Part I The Private Sector
Women of Letters Talk for Ubud Readers and Writers Festival, Indonesia, 2013 7
"Putting Away Childish Things," Sermon in Manchester, England, 2013 11
"Terminal Friendship," The Guardian, 2010 21
"My Teenage Diary," The Guardian, 2015 27
"The Big Story," Financial Times, 2013 31
Greg Shriver's Memorial Tribute, Durham, North Carolina, 2009 37
Part II "What Did You Do in the War, Mommy?"
"Fiction and Identity Politics," Brisbane Writers Festival Opening Address, 2016 45
"Liberals Now Defy the Etymology of the Word," The New York Times, 2016 58
"Writers Blocked," Prospect, 2018 64
"Cruel and Unusual Punishment," Harper's Magazine, 2019 75
"Lefty Lingo," Harper's Magazine, 2019 84
Part III Confessions of an Expat
"Bye-Bye Belfast," 1997 95
"No Exit," Harper's Magazine, 2019 120
"Patrios," Harper's Magazine, 2019 130
Part IV Getting the Blood Running
"Ode to the Hacker," Prospect, 2011 141
"London's Unofficial Olympic Sport," The Atlantic, 2012 146
"Your Gym Routine Is Worthless," Unherd.com Review-Essay on Alison Bechdel's The Secret to Superhuman Strength, 2021 151
Part V Against The Grain
"I Am Not a Kook," The New York Times, 2016 159
"Ikea's Real Genius," The Spectator, 2018 164
"Our Institutions No Longer Understand What They Are For," The Spectator, 2018 168
"Dear WriteNow," The Spectator, 2018 172
"He, She, and It," Prospect, 2016 177
"A Monumental Matter," The Spectator, 2017 185
"Would You Want London to Be Overrun by Americans like Me?" The Spectator, 2021 189
"The Criminalization of Making Money," New Criterion, 2010 193
"Quote-Unquote," The Wall Street Journal, 2008 204
"Lionel Shriver Is Grateful for Pandemic Quarantine (No She Isn't)," Los Angeles Times, 2020 213
Part VI End Papers
"In Defense of Death," Population and Development Review, 2010 221
"I Was Poor, but I Was Happy," The Guardian, 2014 233
"Friendship Agonistes," Prospect, 2011 237
"'I'll Never Put Up with Life in a Care Home,' and Other Lies We Tell Ourselves," The Observer, 2021 245
"Just Because We've Been OK Doesn't Mean We'll Stay That Way," Ramsay Centre Virtual Address, 2020 254
"Catastrophizing Is My Idea of a Good Time," The Spectator, 2038 268
"The Nobody at Cannes," Standpoint, 2011 272
"Semantic Drift," Harper's Magazine, 2019 275
Acknowledgments 285