Home › Books › Abominations: Selected Essays from a Career of Co…
Abominations: Selected Essays from a Career of Courting Self-Destruction
by
11/99
Critics' Rating Index
52/99
Readers' Rating Index
n/a
Scholars' Citation Index
77/99
Volume of Reviews
44/99
Volume of Reader Ratings
Sign in to add to your shelf, rate, or review this book.
About This Book
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, the Guardian, the New York Times, Harper's Magazine, the Wall Street Journal, speeches and reviews, and some unpublished pieces, Abominations reveals Shriver at her most iconoclastic and personal.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. Each 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.
Reviews
"Shriver's fans, though, will make room on their shelves for it."
"Even if you find your ire rising at some of her words, you can be assured that they are worth pondering."
"Spirited, incendiary, entertaining, and sure to ruffle some feathers."
"Shriver's roving curiosity, her libertarian inclinations and her trans-Atlantic orientation (she resides mostly in England and lived for more than a decade in Northern Ireland) make her a rare voice, someone who challenges orthodoxies in the way that many journalists and public intellectuals claim to do but don't."
"There are some similarly well-made pieces in Abominations ..."
"What this collection illustrates above all else is that Shriver is a razor-sharp observer of contemporary life who brings an acutely personal viewpoint to global issues in ways that feel both intimate and universal."
"I disagree with her when it comes to immigration, Brexit and (to a degree) the bulldozing of statues."
Preview
Reader Reviews
0 reviewsSign in to write a review.
No reader reviews yet. Be the first!