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A review by rachelnevada
No Judgment: Essays by Lauren Oyler
No Judgments is an essay collection from sharp literary critic Lauren Oyler, who is apparently online and has written some very popular critical reviews. I had not encountered Oyler before reading this book (other than glancing at Fake Accounts in a used bookstore near me), but read many of her online reviews throughout the course of reading (and attempting to understand) this book, including her thoughts on Trick Mirror and Sally Rooney.
The collection is comprised of six very long essays on gossip, Goodreads, Berlin, autofiction, vulnerability, and anxiety. StoryGraph seems to imply that an alternative title for this collection was My Perfect Opinions and while I can't seem to find anything to corroborate this it does feel apt. In the introduction, Oyler describes the origins of at least two of her essays as "a growing agitation about what I perceived to be misunderstandings and fallacies spreading in cultural criticism and commentary, and a resulting feeling that I must say something to attempt to intervene." All this to say that Oyler has very strong opinions about these somewhat trivial things (her concession, not mine) band we are all along for a long meandering ride to maybe glean the entirety of her thoughts.
Oyler makes it clear in her essays that she sees merit in ambiguities; it is why she seems to enjoy both gossip and autofiction as forms. The same is true for close reading, something that clearly underpins her literary criticism and the way she reads. However, while the ambiguities and the close reading may make for excellent autofiction and literary criticism (respectively), they play out less well in essay form. Each essay is long and meandering and while I found myself highlighting useful bits and pieces, I also found myself writing "why??" over and over again in the (digital) margins of my book. (If interviews with Oyler are any indication, I'm guessing her response would be Who Cares?, another (confirmed) alternative title for her book).
If these essays are meant to be persuade the audience to her opinion (rather than merely to share it in a vaguely entertaining way), they seem to fall short. For example, while her essay on Goodreads touches on the problems of Goodreads being tied to a commercial market completely elides the existence of other book social media platforms. I would be curious what Oyler thinks of the more affect based StoryGraph and it's omission feels particularly stark. I have so! many! thoughts! on the anxiety article (which what take far too much time to articulate in a StoryGraph comment). In short, I am often left unconvinced.
I told a friend of mine that I thought she would find these essays interesting, but maybe not worth her time and that honestly sums up my writing experience. Was I intrigued? Yes. Did I learn something? Maybe. Was my worldview challenged? Not really, which is deeply disappointing.
A good collection for folks who live for literary criticism (and maybe Berlin), otherwise I'd recommend doing something else with your time.
The collection is comprised of six very long essays on gossip, Goodreads, Berlin, autofiction, vulnerability, and anxiety. StoryGraph seems to imply that an alternative title for this collection was My Perfect Opinions and while I can't seem to find anything to corroborate this it does feel apt. In the introduction, Oyler describes the origins of at least two of her essays as "a growing agitation about what I perceived to be misunderstandings and fallacies spreading in cultural criticism and commentary, and a resulting feeling that I must say something to attempt to intervene." All this to say that Oyler has very strong opinions about these somewhat trivial things (her concession, not mine) band we are all along for a long meandering ride to maybe glean the entirety of her thoughts.
Oyler makes it clear in her essays that she sees merit in ambiguities; it is why she seems to enjoy both gossip and autofiction as forms. The same is true for close reading, something that clearly underpins her literary criticism and the way she reads. However, while the ambiguities and the close reading may make for excellent autofiction and literary criticism (respectively), they play out less well in essay form. Each essay is long and meandering and while I found myself highlighting useful bits and pieces, I also found myself writing "why??" over and over again in the (digital) margins of my book. (If interviews with Oyler are any indication, I'm guessing her response would be Who Cares?, another (confirmed) alternative title for her book).
If these essays are meant to be persuade the audience to her opinion (rather than merely to share it in a vaguely entertaining way), they seem to fall short. For example, while her essay on Goodreads touches on the problems of Goodreads being tied to a commercial market completely elides the existence of other book social media platforms. I would be curious what Oyler thinks of the more affect based StoryGraph and it's omission feels particularly stark. I have so! many! thoughts! on the anxiety article (which what take far too much time to articulate in a StoryGraph comment). In short, I am often left unconvinced.
I told a friend of mine that I thought she would find these essays interesting, but maybe not worth her time and that honestly sums up my writing experience. Was I intrigued? Yes. Did I learn something? Maybe. Was my worldview challenged? Not really, which is deeply disappointing.
A good collection for folks who live for literary criticism (and maybe Berlin), otherwise I'd recommend doing something else with your time.