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Abominations: Selected essays from a career of courting self-destruction
by Lionel Shriver
- New
- Hardcover
- Condition
- New
- ISBN 10
- 0008458618
- ISBN 13
- 9780008458614
- Seller
-
Southport, Merseyside, United Kingdom
2 Copies Available from This Seller
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About This Item
Hardback. New. A masterful collection from one of the most acclaimed writers of our time.
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
- The Saint Bookstore
(GB)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- A9780008458614
- Title
- Abominations: Selected essays from a career of courting self-destruction
- Author
- Lionel Shriver
- Format/Binding
- Hardback
- Book Condition
- New
- Quantity Available
- 2
- Binding
- Hardcover
- ISBN 10
- 0008458618
- ISBN 13
- 9780008458614
Terms of Sale
The Saint Bookstore
Refunds or Returns: A full refund of the price paid will be given if returned within 30 days in undamaged condition. If the product is faulty, we may send a replacement.
About the Seller
The Saint Bookstore
Biblio member since 2018
Southport, Merseyside
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- New
- A new book is a book previously not circulated to a buyer. Although a new book is typically free of any faults or defects, "new"...