HomeGroupsTalkMoreZeitgeist
Search Site
This site uses cookies to deliver our services, improve performance, for analytics, and (if not signed in) for advertising. By using LibraryThing you acknowledge that you have read and understand our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Your use of the site and services is subject to these policies and terms.

Results from Google Books

Click on a thumbnail to go to Google Books.

Loading...

My Misspent Youth: Essays (2001)

by Meghan Daum

MembersReviewsPopularityAverage ratingMentions
325879,325 (3.19)2
An essayist in the tradition of Joan Didion, Meghan Daum is one of the most celebrated nonfiction writers of her generation, widely recognized for her fresh, provocative approach with which she unearths the hidden fault lines in the American landscape. From her well remembered New Yorker essays about the financial demands of big-city ambition and the ethereal, strangely old-fashioned allure of cyber-relationships to her dazzlingly hilarious riff in Harper's about musical passions that give way to middle-brow paraphernalia, Daum delves into the center of things while closely examining the detritus that spills out along the way. With precision and well-balanced irony, Daum implicates herself as readily as she does the targets that fascinate and horrify her.… (more)
None
Loading...

Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book.

No current Talk conversations about this book.

» See also 2 mentions

Showing 1-5 of 8 (next | show all)
completely inane non-commentary which unsuccessfully attempts to quell "am i cool, guys?" class anxiety -- n. rochefort's monologue on irish girls in a certain groundbreaking youtube video could function as this review tbh. it's like 100% "my parents' 6-figure salaries are, in many ways, similar to my classmates' parents' 7-figure salaries" and then laying out, in unadorned list-style, what those reasons are -- pathetic, boooooooring, resonant for similarly status-obsessed striver lib girls with "intellectual" parents (to borrow the "music is my bag" taxonomic tool, imagine the "low" NPR lib w/high school english teacher parent or the "high" faculty brat).

the flight attendant essay is both the highlight and the most brazen missed opportunity. idk who the fuck assigned her to work on something Actually Interesting because she simply does not have the voice for it -- she herself says as much in the introduction and Boy She Delivers

american shiksa has some good lines but literally is just a tina fey bit; the polyamory one is similarly alright but has not aged well -- there are many Riper Examples immediately available to you on twitter et al any given week

cosigning other reviewers' pov: "thank god i never moved to new york" might be the big takeaway
( )
  slimeboy | Jan 3, 2023 |
I don't know why I identified with Daum. Maybe I'm also obsessed with the trappings of life rather than its substance. I, too, pick my dreams based on a material understanding of things -- I strive for a life of hardwood floors, intellectual conversations -- a life of doing things for the sake of living. I related to all of her essays, even the snarky, supercilious ones -- especially those. It's too bad that so many of GR reviewers vilified the snobbishness in the writing -- because that's what I thought made Daum so strong. She swung into every essay with her own predetermined set of opinions and attitudes and used them to transport the reader into her life, to see things from her viewpoint. And even then, she even disclaims about her own snobbishness -- she was, in fact, one of those Music Is My Bag kids, she was one of those losers who fall in love with an Internet persona, she was one of those people buried in thousands of dollars of debt. This entire collection exclaims, "I'm imperfect -- in fact, like the world around me, I'm pretty shitty."

It's original and honest in a way not many books are. The style is smooth, fresh, cutting in a way that made me snigger. Daum's one of those writers who gets to the heart of her subjects -- or at least to the heart of her feelings on the subject -- which is something commendable. When discussing the family/colony of polyamorous lovers, she's not dismissive of their polyamory -- she's dismissive of how almost sheltered their lives are. ( )
  Gadi_Cohen | Sep 22, 2021 |
3 stars ONLY because her writing style is fantastic. I love how she analyzes her life and how she got to where she is, but some of these essays just irked the shit out of me. She talks of writing things that are true and not true, so I'm hoping that more than a few of the details are false, written just for the thought process and shock value of those who staunchly disagree with her alleged thoughts. ( )
  amandanan | Jun 6, 2020 |
If you read a favorite author deeply enough, and if she's written enough books, you will eventually hit a dud. These are dated essays which don't hang together well. I already know about what Daum is trying to share here, through her other, better books and essay collections. ( )
  Tytania | Mar 9, 2020 |
The title essay is excellent. The rest rub me the wrong way. Too much of a Gen X "lol nothing matters" ethos. ( )
  charlyk | Nov 15, 2019 |
Showing 1-5 of 8 (next | show all)
no reviews | add a review
You must log in to edit Common Knowledge data.
For more help see the Common Knowledge help page.
Canonical title
Original title
Alternative titles
Original publication date
People/Characters
Important places
Important events
Related movies
Epigraph
Dedication
First words
Quotations
Last words
Disambiguation notice
Publisher's editors
Blurbers
Original language
Canonical DDC/MDS
Canonical LCC

References to this work on external resources.

Wikipedia in English (1)

An essayist in the tradition of Joan Didion, Meghan Daum is one of the most celebrated nonfiction writers of her generation, widely recognized for her fresh, provocative approach with which she unearths the hidden fault lines in the American landscape. From her well remembered New Yorker essays about the financial demands of big-city ambition and the ethereal, strangely old-fashioned allure of cyber-relationships to her dazzlingly hilarious riff in Harper's about musical passions that give way to middle-brow paraphernalia, Daum delves into the center of things while closely examining the detritus that spills out along the way. With precision and well-balanced irony, Daum implicates herself as readily as she does the targets that fascinate and horrify her.

No library descriptions found.

Book description
Haiku summary

Current Discussions

None

Popular covers

Quick Links

Rating

Average: (3.19)
0.5
1 3
1.5
2 14
2.5 1
3 18
3.5 1
4 18
4.5
5 7

Is this you?

Become a LibraryThing Author.

 

About | Contact | Privacy/Terms | Help/FAQs | Blog | Store | APIs | TinyCat | Legacy Libraries | Early Reviewers | Common Knowledge | 202,646,274 books! | Top bar: Always visible