A review by ncm
In the Land of Men: A Memoir by Adrienne Miller

2.0

For an author that fancies herself an island, being a young female editor in an industry dominated by old men, Miller spends an inordinate amount of time talking about men. What had been a minor annoyance until about halfway point became a major liability of this book in its second half, which deals specifically with Miller’s relationship to David Foster Wallace. The author’s recollections of what Wallace told her and how he treated her are merely this: reminiscences of a genius interacting with a non-agent. That would have been fine if it had been the memoir (or the eulogy) Miller set out to write, but the derogatory way in which she portrays ‘literary groupies’ and her horror at the suggestion that she might be considered one, indicates she had in mind something different entirely.
Lacking self-awareness, Miller fails to produce a personal memoir: we never see her do anything, we hardly even see her react with anything more than indifference. Unless, of course, that was her intention all along, and that of an impersonal prop is how we should view a woman's role in the land of men.