...Higgins plunges into her life in New York, where she’s lived for several years. She reflects on parties, Manhattan summers and the differences in small talk in Ireland and America. Dogs also merit an essay. 'Rescue animals are prized possessions in New York,' Higgins tells us. 'It seems the older and sicker your animal is, the richer and greater you are.'
Higgins’ essays sparkle with humor and wry observations. But as she puts it, '[t]he sliver of shared space between comedy and tragedy is one that fascinates me.' And so Higgins lets us see into the shadows—of her life and perhaps our own. She speaks of 'the lowness of loneliness' and how it sneaks up at unexpected moments. She explores the terrain of friendships and failures, and writes about immigration, past and present.
Prepare to laugh as comedian Maeve Higgins shares tales of an Irish girl in New York. Her essays take us from that Cinderella feeling of finding the perfect dress (and then not being able to afford the rental cost) to finding (or not finding) the perfect man, to more-serious matters— LGBTQ rights, women’s rights, immigration, family life—all with humor and flair ... Maeve Higgins may not be a household name yet, but she certainly has some things to say.
As the title suggests, many of the pieces in this collection are directly or indirectly concerned with the surprising moments of culture shock one finds when moving to another country, even one as ostensibly similar as the United States is to Ireland. In one essay, Higgins admits her discomfort with the American style of small talk, which she finds too intense and high-stakes relative to the comfortable, often funny exchanges between two Irish strangers on a train ... They are funny, to be sure, but like the best comedy, nearly everything Higgins writes is tinged with just the slightest hint of melancholy, anger or self-doubt, which will endear her to readers and make them eager to seek out her variety of work in other mediums --- and maybe even her Instagram Stories.
In this sharp and readable book, Higgins tells the story of how she came to America as an adult still learning how to go about 'the endlessly tricky business of being a regular human being.' ... A keen observer of culture, the author offers timely insights about race and immigration in America. In Aliens of Extraordinary Ability, she describes how Irish-American nostalgia often imagines an Ireland that never existed; at the same time, she muses on the privilege her 'indoor ghost face' has conferred on her in America ... A warmly intelligent and insightful collection.
With Maeve In America: Essays by a Girl from Somewhere Else, the clear and precise writing and infectious warmth so evident from Higgins' literal (and figurative) voice finds a suitable home on the written page ... Identity politics, gender perspectives, and basic, clumsy, fish out of water confusion is liberally sprinkled through all the essays in Maeve In America, the strong and minor efforts both, but it's really within 'Aliens of Extraordinary Ability' that Higgins finds her strongest platform ... Maeve in America is a sweetly rendered collection of essays with hard edges of reality that seem to come from a distinctly Irish literary sensibility. It's about rebellion, humor, adaptation, hunger for food and a place in the world, and the offerings of humanity that all immigrants bring to the land when they come for a place at the American table.
Aside from getting champagne in your eye, or being snapped at by your pet toucan, bemoaning a lack of purpose is the most privileged problem in the known universe, so I won’t drone on about it,' writes comedian Higgins in the first essay of her wickedly funny collection. In the 14 pieces that follow, Higgins delivers on her promise to reach beyond the self while addressing such topics as Rent the Runway, a designer-clothes rental service, and the Muslim travel ban with incisive humor and deep humility ... Higgins has the rare gift of being able to meaningfully engage with politics and social ills while remaining legitimately funny.
