""The essay collection everyoneтАЩs talking about.""тАФNew York
A MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK OF 2024: Elle, The Millions, LitHub, Nylon, BookPage, PureWow, and more
From the national bestselling novelist and essayist, a groundbreaking collection of brand-new pieces about the role of cultural criticism in our ever-changing world.
In her writing for HarperтАЩs, the London Review of Books, The New Yorker, and elsewhere, Lauren Oyler has emerged as one of the most trenchant and influential critics of her generation, a talent whose judgments on works of literatureтАФwhether celebratory or scarily harshтАФhave become notorious. But what is the significance of being a critic and consumer of media in todayтАЩs fraught environment? How do we understand ourselves, and each other, as space between the individual and the world seems to get smaller and smaller, and our opinions on books and movies seem to represent something essential about our souls? And to put it bluntly, why should you care what sheтАФor anyoneтАФthinks?
In this, her first collection of essays, Oyler writes with about topics like the role of gossip in our exponentially communicative society, the rise and proliferation of autofiction, why weтАЩre all so тАЬvulnerableтАЭ these days, and her own anxiety. In her singular proseтАФsharp yet addictive, expansive yet personalтАФshe encapsulates the world we live and think in with precision and care, delivering a work of cultural criticism as only she can.
Bringing to mind the works of such iconic writers as Susan Sontag, Pauline Kael, and Terry Castle, No Judgment is a testament to Lauren OylerтАЩs inimitable wit and her quest to understand how we shape the world through culture. It is a sparkling nonfiction debut from one of todayтАЩs most inventive thinkers.
Lauren OylerтАЩs essays on books and culture appear regularly in The New Yorker, the New York Times Magazine, the London Review of Books, HarperтАЩs Magazine, the Guardian, Bookforum, and other publications. She is the author of the novel Fake Accounts. She lives in Berlin.