IN PRAISE OF MESSY LIVES By Katie Roiphe



If you check out Katie Roiphe’s photo, you’ll get the sense of what these essays offer: some brashness, some irreverence, and some prose calculated to piss the reader off. Katie comes off as a woman with Attitude and Attitude she delivers! Katie starts off with her own messy life: failed relationships, her two children by two different men, and her prickly personality (check out that photo again!). Katie writes about how she had sex with her college roommate’s boyfriend and is surprised when her apology doesn’t heal the hurt she inflicted on a needy girl. Katie also goes after Joan Didion (a much better writer than Katie) because she senses Didion holds her personality back from her work. Katie also trashes Maureen Dowd (another better writer). I liked Katie’s opinions on Susan Sontag and Jane Austen. Katie is bright, but she’s definitely High Maintainence. GRADE: B+

24 thoughts on “IN PRAISE OF MESSY LIVES By Katie Roiphe

  1. Deb

    It’s probably indicative of my life as a woman of a certain age, mother of teenage and early-twenties girls, and worker in a contemporary high school, but I look at that picture and think, “a sullen, spoiled brat with a sense of entitlement and no sense of restraint,”– and I have absolutely no interest in reading her book.

    /Hurrumph!

    Reply
  2. Deb

    And the mother in me says she should have chosen a longer skirt and/or worn some hose or tights–although possibly male readers will disagree.

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  3. Beth Fedyn

    I seem to recall using one of her books for a biography book club; it was not a hit.

    Yeah, that picture tells a story, don’t it?

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  4. Jeff Meyerson

    The story that picture tells me is, Katie, you’re not 18 anymore, you’re over 40.

    Grow up and get over yourself!

    Reply
    1. george Post author

      Jeff, the NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW picked Katie Roiphe’s IN PRAISE OF MESSY LIVES (along with WAITING FOR THE BARBARIANS by Daniel Mendelsohn and THE GOOD STUFF by James Wood) as one of the best essay collections of 2012. I’ll be reviewing the other two essay collections in the coming weeks. Mendelsohn and Wood don’t have sullen pictures on their dust jackets.

      Reply
  5. Patti Abbott

    There are a hundred girls like this walking the streets here. Privilege doesn’t negate brains but it sure does put a look on a face.

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  6. Richard R.

    I’m with Deb all the way on this one, both of her comments. Roiphe is not the least bit attractive. My first glimpse made me think of Mia Farrow (who is also not the least bit attractive to me). I don’t need to read a bunch of attitude. Give me a Sloan Crosby book any day over this. I got a new book of essays you’ll approve of George. Check out the next New Arrivals post on Sunday/Monday.

    Reply
  7. Todd Mason

    Roiphe is the daughter of a similar sort of “edgy” (or is that pompous) writer. She defines “edgy” with quotations marks required (Deb’s comparison with Wurtzel isn’t unfair)…and I suspect that the selection says a lot more about NYTBR than it does about the quality of Roiphe’s book. (They hired vexed antifeminist Toni Bentley to review Katha Pollitt’s LEARNING TO DRIVE, after all. They have a history in this regard.)(I doubt even in your kindness toward William Vollmann that you could find any merit in the cover-page essay they published by him a year or so back.)

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  8. Drongo

    George, “troubled” was implied.

    I might give this book a try, just out of curiosity. (Amusing photo, btw. She kind of looks like a tranny.)

    Reply
    1. george Post author

      You’ll be impressed by Katie Roiphe’s intelligence, Drongo. But the story of Roiphe having sex with her college roommate’s boy friend (and the aftermath) is disturbing.

      Reply

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