Critics' Opinion:
Readers' rating:
Published Apr 2023
288 pages
Genre: History, Current Affairs and Religion
Publication Information
A passionate, provocative, blisteringly smart interrogation of how we make and experience art in the age of #MeToo, and of the link between genius and monstrosity. From the author of the New York Times best seller Poser and the acclaimed memoir Love and Trouble
In this unflinching, deeply personal book that expands on her instantly viral Paris Review essay, "What Do We Do with the Art of Monstrous Men?" Claire Dederer asks: Can we love the work of Hemingway, Polanski, Naipaul, Miles Davis, or Picasso? Should we love it? Does genius deserve special dispensation? Is male monstrosity the same as female monstrosity? Does art have a mandate to depict the darker elements of the psyche? And what happens if the artist stares too long into the abyss?
She explores the audience's relationship with artists from Woody Allen to Michael Jackson, asking: How do we balance our undeniable sense of moral outrage with our equally undeniable love of the work? In a more troubling vein, she wonders if an artist needs to be a monster in order to create something great. And if an artist is also a mother, does one identity inexorably, and fatally, interrupt the other? Highly topical, morally wise, honest to the core, Monsters is certain to incite a conversation about whether and how we can separate artists from their art.
"Bringing erudition, emotion, and a down-to-earth style to this pressing problem, Dederer presents her finest work to date ... Dederer's analysis includes both usual and unusual suspects, often with remarkably original angles." —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"Contemplative and willing to tackle the hard questions head on, this pulls no punches." —Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"[An] insightful exploration ... Dederer's case studies include Roman Polanski, Woody Allen, and Miles Davis, whose work she considers brilliant and important. What's a fan to do? Dederer offers nuanced answers, challenging the assumption that boycotting is always the best response." —Booklist
"A valuable meditation on some of the era's most urgent cultural questions ... Emerging from Dederer's reflections is the plain truth that every personal response to art is inseparable not only from the artist's past but also the history of each member of its audience." —Library Journal
"Monsters is an incredible book, the best work of criticism I have read in a very long time. It's thrillingly sharp, appropriately doubtful, and more fun than you would believe, given the pressing seriousness of the subject matter. Claire Dederer's mind is a wonder, her erudition too; I now want her to apply them to everything I'm interested in so I can think about them differently." —Nick Hornby, author of High Fidelity
This information about Monsters 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.
Claire Dederer is the author of Love and Trouble, and the New York Times best-selling memoir Poser: My Life in Twenty-Three Yoga Poses, which has been translated into twelve languages. A book critic, essayist, and reporter, Dederer is a longtime contributor to The New York Times and has also written for The Atlantic, Vogue, Slate, The Nation, and New York magazine. She lives near Seattle with her family.
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