Description

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Blazingly intelligent, wickedly funny, and piercingly honest, a memoir that captures the perils and pleasures of girlhood, womanhood, and life itself.

“One of my favorite books of the last few years.” —Cheryl Strayed

“Sentence for sentence, a more pleasure-yielding midlife memoir is hard to think of.” —The Atlantic

At mid-life, Claire Dederer developed a sudden yearning for jailbreak. In this exuberant memoir, she reflects on two periods in her life uncannily similar in their emotional intensity: her present experience as a middle-aged mom in the grip of unruly and mysterious new hungers, and her recollections of herself as a teenager.

About the Author

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CLAIRE DEDERER is the author of the New York Times best-selling memoir Poser: My Life in Twenty-three Yoga Poses, which has been translated into twelve languages and which Elizabeth Gilbert called “the book we all need.” A book critic, essayist, and reporter, Dederer is a longtime contributor to The New York Times and has also written for The Atlantic, Vogue, Slate, The Nation, and New York magazine, among other publications. She lives on an island near Seattle with her family.

Praise For…

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One of the Best Books of the Year: The Stranger and Kirkus Reviews

“Not only one of my favorite feminist books, but one of my favorite books of the last few years, period. . . . Exquisite. . . . So sharp and real and revelatory. . . .  I loved it so, so much.” —Cheryl Strayed

“Sentence for sentence, a more pleasure-yielding midlife memoir is hard to think of.” —The Atlantic
 
“Dederer is not only a brilliant author, but an honest and brave one.” —Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love

“Dederer is an excellent writer who spins her prose with the casual grace and easy humor of a seasoned professional.” —The New York Times Book Review

“Ferociously honest.” —The Seattle Times
 
“This knowing and original memoir abounds with intelligence, wit, earned nostalgia, and an impressive degree of understanding about no less than being female and becoming a person.” —Meg Wolitzer, author of The Interestings
 
“Affecting and . . . darkly amusing.” —The Washington Post

“The most surprising and subversive memoir I’ve read in years.” —Stephanie Danler, author of Sweetbitter

“What emerges, in the course of this vivid, hilarious, daring self-portrait of a book, is a person who has achieved clarity about her own contradictions, or at least has figured out how to use those contradictions as an excuse to bring lively writing into the world. . . . The memoir is practically a master class in narrative technique.” —The Stranger