PositiveThe New York Times Book ReviewJong-Fast has written a memoir that feels like an effort to transcend her mother’s narrative with her own, while still remaining deeply bound to the family form ... Jong-Fast is cognizant of both her nepo-baby privilege and the thorny ethics of writing a memoir about an ailing parent. Yet she remains unsparing in her analysis, and grief and rage coincide with comedy and uptown-literati charm ... Reading How to Lose Your Mother, one senses that the mother got the very daughter she wanted, even if she had no idea what to do with her when she arrived.
Nada Alic
PositiveThe New York Times Book ReviewAt first, superficial appearances, 280-character missives and quick fixes seem to take precedence over authenticity or real intimacy...But eventually, each story pushes into weirder, more vulnerable territory as it captures the (usually female) narrator’s borderline perverse thoughts ... Alic depicts contemporary womanhood with a wry, uncensored voice reminiscent of those in Miranda July’s off-kilter SoCal talesrevel in seedy detail.
