by Ariel Levy (Author)
A Time Top 10 Non-Fiction Book of 2017
A Vogue Top 10 Book of 2017
An Amazon.com Book of 2017 and an NPR Great Read of 2017
'Every deep feeling a human is capable of will be shaken loose by this short, but profound book' David Sedaris
'I wanted what we all want: everything. We want a mate who feels like family and a lover who is exotic, surprising. We want to be youthful adventurers and middle-aged mothers. We want intimacy and autonomy, safety and stimulation, reassurance and novelty, coziness and thrills. But we can't have it all.'
Ariel Levy picks you up and hurls you through the story of how she lived believing that conventional rules no longer applied - that marriage doesn't have to mean monogamy, that aging doesn't have to mean infertility, that she could be 'the kind of woman who is free to do whatever she chooses'. But all of her assumptions about what she can control are undone after a string of overwhelming losses.
'I thought I had harnessed the power of my own strength and greed and love in a life that could contain it. But it has exploded.'
Levy's own story of resilience becomes an unforgettable portrait of the shifting forces in our culture, of what has changed - and what never can.
Format: Hardcover
Pages: 224
Publisher: Fleet
Published: 16 Mar 2017
ISBN 10: 034900529X
ISBN 13: 9780349005294
Her narrative rattles along at the breakneck pace of a gripping thriller, yet her writing is never anything
short of crystal clear. She's particularly good at describing love and loss . . . a brilliant memoirist
Think heightened senses and heady in-the-moment intensity. She's crisscrossed the globe in search of these
unique experiences as a staff writer for The New Yorker since 2008, and now turns her interrogative eye on herself. What results is
profound, and lasting
Ariel Levy joined The New Yorker as a staff writer in 2008 and received the National Magazine Award for Essays and Criticism in 2014 for her piece 'Thanksgiving in Mongolia'. She is the author of the book Female Chauvinist Pigs and was a contributing editor at New York for twelve years.
ariellevy.net
@avlskies