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Abominations: A masterful new essay collection from the cultural iconoclast and award-winning author of We Need To Talk About Kevin
by Shriver, Lionel
- New
- Hardcover
- Condition
- New
- ISBN 10
- 0008458618
- ISBN 13
- 9780008458614
- Seller
-
Exeter, Devon, United Kingdom
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
The Borough Press, 2022. Hardcover. New. 304 pages. 8.82x5.67x1.14 inches.
Reviews
On Sep 15 2022, CloggieDownunder said:
4.5★s
Abominations is a collection of thirty-five essays about a wide range of topics by prize-winning best-selling American author, Lionel Shriver. She applies her insight, her talent for argument and her succinct prose to subjects like her teenage diary, a dying friend, cancel culture, writers blocked, the fashionable argot and privilege, semantics in arguments about gender, the laziness of buzzwords, patriotism, nationalism and loyalty to one's birth or adopted country, Brexit, immigration, and paying tax.
She offers a sermon rejecting religious faith, a letter to her younger self about what makes one happy, a tribute to her older brother, and she outlines the inspiration for her novel, Big Brother. She describes being an American ex-pat in Belfast, and film festival humiliation at Cannes.
She comments on playing tennis: "It's fabulous to be able to thwack anything that hard, over and over, and not get arrested"; on fitness junkies, libertarians and the 2016 US election, Ikea's real genius ("sooner or later, it falls apart"), an oppressively gendered world, the drive to politically decontaminate public memorials, and what happiness is (not a position, a trajectory).
On cycling in London: "I've biked dozens of American states and all over Western Europe, and nowhere have I encountered a cycling culture so cutthroat, vicious, reckless, hostile, and violently competitive as London's". On diversity quotas: "unfair, antimeritocratic, and culturally destructive".
She gives the reader a very tongue-in-cheek list of her activities during pandemic lockdown, an opinion on the cost of health care in an ageing population, and an account of friendship, ongoing, fractured and mended. She muses on end of life and where one might draw the line with acceptable debility.
She bemoans the deteriorating standards of prose and speech, explaining her tendency to mark up casual conversation with a red pencil, and theorises on civil unrest during lockdown, BLM zealotry and the economy.
Her controversial essay on fiction and identity politics, on authenticity, is particularly well thought-out with many valid points. And her essay on quoteless dialogue in literature will resonate with most readers and many in the publishing trade: "I've yet to hear any reader despair, 'This would have been a great book, if it weren't for all those pesky quotation marks!'"
Her thought-provoking opinions pull no punches, and while many will disagree with what she says, this is a worthwhile read, even if some of the topics are of little interest to some, thus tempting skimming. Diverse, provocative, interesting.
This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by NetGalley and Harper Collins UK.
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Details
- Bookseller
- Revaluation Books (GB)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- 2-0008458618
- Title
- Abominations: A masterful new essay collection from the cultural iconoclast and award-winning author of We Need To Talk About Kevin
- Author
- Shriver, Lionel
- Format/Binding
- Hardcover
- Book Condition
- New
- Quantity Available
- 1
- ISBN 10
- 0008458618
- ISBN 13
- 9780008458614
- Publisher
- The Borough Press
- Date Published
- 2022
Terms of Sale
Revaluation Books
30 day return guarantee, with full refund including original shipping costs for up to 30 days after delivery if an item arrives misdescribed or damaged.
About the Seller
Revaluation Books
Biblio member since 2020
Exeter, Devon
About Revaluation Books
General bookseller of both fiction and non-fiction.
Glossary
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- New
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