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Published Aug 2018
256 pages
Genre: Essays
Publication Information
A timely essay collection about life, love, and becoming an American from breakout comedy star and podcaster Maeve Higgins.
Maeve Higgins was a bestselling memoirist and comedian in her native Ireland when, at the grand old age of thirty-one, she left the only home she'd ever known in search of something more. Like many women in their early thirties, she both was and was not the adult she wanted to be. At once smart, curious, and humane, Maeve in America is the story of how Maeve found herself, literally and figuratively, in New York City.
Here are stories of not being able to afford a dress for the ball, of learning to live with yourself while you're still figuring out how to love yourself, of the true significance of realizing what sort of shelter dog you would be. Self-aware and laugh-out-loud funny, this collection is also a fearless exploration of the awkward questions in life, such as: Is clapping too loudly at a gig a good enough reason to break up with somebody? Is it ever really possible to leave home?
Together, the essays in Maeve in America create a startlingly funny and revealing portrait of a woman who aims for the stars but hits the ceiling, and the inimitable city that has helped shape who she is, even as she finds the words to make sense of it all.
"Starred Review. Wickedly funny ... Higgins has the rare gift of being able to meaningfully engage with politics and social ills while remaining legitimately funny." - Publishers Weekly
"Sharp and readable ... A warmly intelligent and insightful collection." - Kirkus
"Higgins is rarer than a blessing of unicorns ... She is original and relatively calm, her observations are pithy, her wit delicate, her persona oddly alluring and deftly honest." - The Irish Times
"Maeve Higgins is hilarious. She is the true Irish voice of our American generation." - Amy Schumer
"Maeve Higgins is brilliant; but her brilliance isn't the braggy, headlight kind that tries to trap her subjects deer-like in a cold, dead glare. Instead, she lights every room she enters with warmth, welcome, and generous rays of sheer funny. And in this book, she illuminates the world." - John Hodgman, bestselling author of Vacationland
"Maeve Higgins is easily one of my favorite, most treasured comedic voices. She is one of those rare artists who makes her unique point of view relatable and refreshing, leaving you feeling like you've been on the same page with her your whole life." - Kristen Schaal
"Until space aliens land in America, Maeve Higgins from Ireland is the next best thing. She offers fresh and insightful perspectives from a faraway place on all we take for granted." - Neil deGrasse Tyson
"Maeve Higgins is the funniest writer I know. And Maeve in America is just so smart and joyful. I especially like it when she's unhappy. Because she's very funny about it. Always be unhappy, Maeve!" - Jon Ronson, author of So You've Been Publicly Shamed
"This is a really funny, really natural, really gifted writer." - Kevin Barry, author of Beatlebone and City of Bohane
"Maeve Higgins is hilarious, poignant, conversational, and my favorite Irish import since U2. You're in for a treat." - Phoebe Robinson, New York Times bestselling author of You Can't Touch My Hair
This information about Maeve in America was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Maeve Higgins is a contributing writer for The New York Times and the host of the hit podcast Maeve in America: Immigration IRL. She is a comedian who has performed all over the world, including in her native Ireland, Edinburgh, Melbourne, and Erbil. Now based in New York, she cohosts Neil deGrasse Tyson's StarTalk, both the podcast and the TV show on National Geographic, and has also appeared on Comedy Central's Inside Amy Schumer and on WNYC's 2 Dope Queens.
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