baruchbarnes's reviews
169 reviews

Here's the thing: Lauren Oyler is long-winded, insufferable, and pretentious. Another thing: she knows it. And a third thing: I don't necessarily think this is an inherent negative. If I were reading her pieces in a Substack once a month, I would probably become enamored with her, even if I wouldn't want to be friends (due to the insufferable pretention). But in a long form collection, her weaknesses (vulnerabilities?) become much more apparent and much less ignorable. The longer essays could have been cut in half without losing anything and the shorter pieces wander a little too much for the Point to have impact. However! I do like her writing style as a whole and I think this would make a good book club book- not because it's amazing, but because it brings up a lot of topics and statements I would like to discuss in a group, especially when I disagree with Oyler's conclusions.

I've heard about the critical review lambasting this book and I'm going to go find it now, but based solely on my own reading experience, this collection was interesting at times but to be perfectly honest, would have been better separated.