A review by erika_winters
Monsters: A Fan's Dilemma by Claire Dederer

challenging dark emotional funny informative reflective sad medium-paced

4.5

This was a really insightful book of essays containing cultural critiques while combining Dederer’s personal experiences and views. A major question she tackles throughout the essays (which delve into Roman Polanski, Woody Allen, Pablo Picasso, Doris Lessing, Joni Mitchell, etc.) is: can we still love art created by monstrous people? This is something that Dederer personally grapples with throughout and has a bunch of mixed emotions about; but we all do, really. The only reason this didn’t get a perfect 5 star rating is because I felt like some essays were lacking in some way; I am greedy and wanted more discussion or more details about people I didn’t know about before reading the essays, such as Ana Mendieta, a feminist sculptor and painter, who died tragically from what Dederer believes to be a domestic violence situation. 
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