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Bottom of the pile
3
/100
I Index Overall Rating
Readers
2/100Critics
5/100Scholars
Author:
Adrienne Miller
Publisher:
Ecco
Date:
February 11, 2020
Adrienne Miller recounts coming of age in the male-dominated literary world of the nineties, becoming the first female literary editor of Esquire, and her personal and working relationship with David Foster Wallace.
What The Reviewers Say
The book showcases Miller’s editing prowess as evidenced by what she chooses to omit. She has the ability to draw the reader in with an impressive cannon of literary content, yet trusts her writing enough to inject humor when necessary. In the Land of Men is both tender and painful. It’s power and mercy. If you love literature, novels, or anything that has to do with the written word, you will enjoy In the Land of Men..
'When people show you who they are, believe them the first time,' Maya Angelou once told Oprah Winfrey. Unfortunately, two decades on, Miller still seems only half-willing to believe, and even less willing than that to pass judgment on, a man who, his prodigious talents and premature death by suicide notwithstanding, did not apparently see or treat women as fully human. It is this reluctance that ultimately renders In the Land of Men a painful and frustrating read.
Miller, 47, writes with daunting authority and suffers no lack of self-confidence.
Bookworms, former English majors, and anyone tired of Old White Men novels will enjoy the blunt descriptions of petulant literary giants (John Updike), high-brow celebrities (Todd Solondz), and other behind-the-scenes figures (editor Rust Hills). Miller likes to emphasize her level-headed Midwestern sensibility and rarely presents events salaciously. She needn’t, as the awfulness is so explicit.
