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A review by literatehedgehog
I'll Tell You in Person by Chloe Caldwell
2.0
New York naughty white girl personal essays.
Maybe that's too harsh but I had much higher expectations for this based on other reviews and blurbs and I was sorely disappointed. I do read a fair amount of essays, so I could have reached my cap for "wowie I was a wild one" recollections or "this is how I (almost) met a famous person" anecdotes or "isn't my anxiety the worst?" navel-gazes. I wanted less introspection and more connection from these essays. In my view, personal essays use the personal details to connect to wider themes. I'm not asking for a treatise on the human condition, but a little more global perspective-taking.
reads somewhat like
Sloane Crosby's NYC intelli-smarm, Lena Denham's narcissism and Mindy Kaling's arbitrarily organized books.
I preferred
Scaachi Koul's reflections in One Day We'll All Be Dead and None of This Will Matter and Samantha Irby's dark wit in We Are Never Meeting In Real Life (and in her other writings).
My take-away is that I should check that the essays are somewhat personal, somewhat political or cultural before I commit myself.
Maybe that's too harsh but I had much higher expectations for this based on other reviews and blurbs and I was sorely disappointed. I do read a fair amount of essays, so I could have reached my cap for "wowie I was a wild one" recollections or "this is how I (almost) met a famous person" anecdotes or "isn't my anxiety the worst?" navel-gazes. I wanted less introspection and more connection from these essays. In my view, personal essays use the personal details to connect to wider themes. I'm not asking for a treatise on the human condition, but a little more global perspective-taking.
reads somewhat like
Sloane Crosby's NYC intelli-smarm, Lena Denham's narcissism and Mindy Kaling's arbitrarily organized books.
I preferred
Scaachi Koul's reflections in One Day We'll All Be Dead and None of This Will Matter and Samantha Irby's dark wit in We Are Never Meeting In Real Life (and in her other writings).
My take-away is that I should check that the essays are somewhat personal, somewhat political or cultural before I commit myself.