We see that javascript is disabled or not supported by your browser - javascript is needed for important actions on the site. Read more

What's New - Home - Login

Member $avings: $81,736,382.69 | Books Available: 736,417 | Members Online: 268

Swap Used Books - Buy New Books at Great Prices!

How To Swap Books Sign Up Search submenu

PBS Market (New Books)

Gift Buying Guide

Book Browser Advanced Search Books Posted Today Member Book Reviews Award Winning Books NYT Best Sellers Amazon Best Sellers Most Traveled Copies Club Wish List

Discussion Forums Book Lists

Club Lists My Book Lists My Watched Lists Create a List

Blog Donations

School Donation Program In Memory of... Military Donation Program Friends of PBS

Box-O-Books Maps The Eclectic Pen Fun Stuff

20 Questions Sudoku Bookmark Creator

Top 100

Requests Posts Swappers Referrers Reviewers

Pulse of PBS Spread The Word

Invite Friends Bookmarks Facebook Page Facebook App More Ways...

Photo Gallery Recipes Club Tag Cloud Member Testimonials

Help Center submenu

How To Swap Books Browse Help Docs Ask the Librarian PBS Member Icons Live Help

Kiosk

PBS Market (New Books) Go Shopping Buy Credits Buy PBS Money Upgrade Membership Gift Certificates Transfer Credits

Need Help?

Search - The Fame Lunches: On Wounded Icons, Money, Sex, the Brontes, and the Importance of Handbags

The Fame Lunches On Wounded Icons Money Sex the Brontes and the Importance of Handbags
Author: Daphne Merkin

A wide-ranging collection of essays by one of America's most perceptive critics of popular and literary culture — From one of America's most insightful and independent-minded critics comes a remarkable new collection of essays, her first in more than fifteen years. Daphne Merkin brings her signature combination of wit, ca... more »ndor, and penetrating intelligence to a wide array of subjects that touch on every aspect of contemporary culture, from the high calling of the literary life to the poignant underside of celebrity to our collective fixation on fame. "Sometimes it seems to me that the private life no longer suffices for many of us," she writes, "that if we are not observed by others doing glamorous things, we might as well not exist."

Merkin's elegant, widely admired profiles go beneath the glossy façades of neon-lit personalities to consider their vulnerabilities and demons, as well as their enduring hold on us. As her title essay explains, she writes in order "to save myself through saving wounded icons . . . Famous people . . . who required my intervention on their behalf because only I understood the desolation that drove them." Here one will encounter a gallery of complex, unforgettable womenâMarilyn Monroe, Courtney Love, Diane Keaton, and Cate Blanchett, among othersâas well as such intriguing male figures as Michael Jackson, Mike Tyson, Truman Capote, and Richard Burton. Merkin reflects with empathy and discernment on what makes them runâand what makes them stumble.

Drawing upon her many years as a book critic, Merkin also offers reflections on writers as varied as Jean Rhys, W. G. Sebald, John Updike, and Alice Munro. She considers the vexed legacy of feminism after Betty Friedan, Bruno Bettelheim's tarnished reputation as a healer, and the reenvisioning of Freud by the elusive Adam Phillips.

Most of all, though, Merkin is a writer who is not afraid to implicate herself as a participant in our consumerist and overstimulated culture. Whether ruminating upon the subtext of lip gloss, detailing the vicissitudes of a pre–Yom Kippur pedicure, or arguing against our obsession with household pets, Merkin helps makes sense of our collective impulses. From a brazenly honest and deeply empathic observer, The Fame Lunches shines a light on truths we often prefer to keep veiled -- and in doing so opens up the conversation for all of us.

The Market's bargain prices are even better for Paperbackswap club members!

Retail Price: ~~$28.00~~
Buy New (Hardcover): $18.99 (save 32%) or
Become a PBS member and pay $15.09+1 PBS book credit Help icon

(save 46%)

ISBN-13: 9780374140373
ISBN-10: 0374140375
Publication Date: 9/2/2014
Pages: 416
Rating:

0 stars, based on 0 rating

Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Book Type: Hardcover
Members Wishing: 1
Reviews: Amazon | Write a Review

Genres:

Health, Fitness & Dieting >> Personal Health >> Women's Health >> General
Health, Fitness & Dieting >> Personal Health >> Women's Health >> Sexual Health
Literature & Fiction >> Essays & Correspondence >> Essays

Back to the Top ↑

Search - The Fame Lunches: On Wounded Icons, Money, Sex, the Brontes, and the Importance of Handbags

Loading...