MixedThe New York Times Book Review... takes no risks at all, save for the risk of irrelevance ... What are we to make of Jones’s inclusion of Lady Gaga and Michelle Williams, but not Beyoncé or Venus Williams (or any athlete at all)? Why Grace Kelly but not Grace Jones? Why is the closing statement — on #MeToo — a Freudian riff by Monica Lewinsky, and not a convocation from the movement founder Tarana Burke? Had it a robust editorial vision, this collection could’ve been marvelous ... The book’s final section, headed In Their Own Words, confounds me. What did the editors intend with this blitz of recent, data-heavy essays on gender discrimination? With the 40 or so pages, were they trying to make up for mindless choices in the previous nearly 400? ... the handful of superb profiles — particularly the ones on Child, Bush, Steinem and Waithe — salvage the volume, and it may be worth having for those. Maybe a future edition can expand on strengths to create a more compelling book.
Eve Babitz
RaveThe New York Times Book ReviewBabitz’s winking embrace of clichés provides ideal cover for an intellect suffering no fools ... Babitz may sneak up on readers who are unfamiliar with her work. Fans of her books, like Slow Days, Fast Company, will find a trove of delights here ... This collection ought to cement her place among contemporaries like Joan Didion, an early champion of her work, and Pauline Kael, of whom Babitz was a fan ... Babitz declares, \'I have never liked perfect things, they give me the creeps.\' Still, this collection comes close.
Glen David Gold
MixedThe Los Angeles Review of BooksThe book’s driving force is the author’s relationship with his mother; the dynamic between them compels us through the story even as it increasingly repels the son ... Gold has a way with one-liners, and the self-deprecating humor is gratifying ... Some critics have complained that his novels can feel disjointed, aimless, and overstuffed, apt comments here as well ... Ultimately, the book asks us to consider a familiar pair of questions. First: At what point are addicts—and martyrs of all kinds—to blame for what befalls them? ... Second: At what point should their loved ones cut their losses and move on in order to rescue themselves? ... Gold’s memoir invites the jury of readers to judge him, asserting throughout the book that he no longer loves his mom, as if making the appeal, See how hard I tried? ... It’s a troubling quandary that Glen’s father escapes condemnation, not just by being the saner parent but simply by having left first. There’s something of a double standard at play as Glen tries to make sense of his childhood.
