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A review by thomasgoddard
The Fran Lebowitz Reader by Fran Lebowitz
4.0
I saw Fran on Netflix; so I decided to buy this new imprint of her 1994 release. I picked it up in hardback for myself and also a hardback copy for a friend as I knew it would be amusing.
And it's funny in the sense of it being a skillfully disguised nod to those few of us in possession of common sense. Which, as she will tell you, isn't common.
It's a bit repetitive. It's a bit smug. A touch flippant. But this book positions itself as a conduit. It allows us access to a mind that would otherwise solely be a blessing to a few select friends.
It's elitist, but it's always very clear that Lebowitz speaks from a position of passionate defence, rather than snide offence.
I think it is a damn shame that those who most need to read this book are exactly the people who won't ever read these essays (or anything else besides a bestseller once or twice a year, if that). In that sense, it suffers from being a book that preaches to the well and truly converted.
Which is something that I've been thinking about recently. Because for the longest time the intellectual left seemed incapable of speaking to anyone outside the intellectual left. And now it seems to be finally shouting loudly. Which works and doesn't. But it's something. Maybe in time it will prove fruitful. One can hope.
And it's funny in the sense of it being a skillfully disguised nod to those few of us in possession of common sense. Which, as she will tell you, isn't common.
It's a bit repetitive. It's a bit smug. A touch flippant. But this book positions itself as a conduit. It allows us access to a mind that would otherwise solely be a blessing to a few select friends.
It's elitist, but it's always very clear that Lebowitz speaks from a position of passionate defence, rather than snide offence.
I think it is a damn shame that those who most need to read this book are exactly the people who won't ever read these essays (or anything else besides a bestseller once or twice a year, if that). In that sense, it suffers from being a book that preaches to the well and truly converted.
Which is something that I've been thinking about recently. Because for the longest time the intellectual left seemed incapable of speaking to anyone outside the intellectual left. And now it seems to be finally shouting loudly. Which works and doesn't. But it's something. Maybe in time it will prove fruitful. One can hope.