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Maybe someday
44
/100
I Index Overall Rating
Readers
26/100Critics
61/100Scholars
Author:
Alexandra Petri
Publisher:
W. W. Norton Company
Date:
June 2, 2020
These impossibly cheerful essays on the routine horrors of the present era explain everything from the resurgence of measles to the fiasco of the presidency.
What The Reviewers Say
We all have that one friend who has the rare ability to make us laugh, not just over cocktails or brunch, but even under the direst of circumstances. A friend whose dry wit, touching on everything from electoral politics to women’s equality, is more than just banter: It also punctuates intellectual points and helps frame opinions. That’s what it feels like to read Alexandra Petri’s new book.
Petri writes about what’s happening in the world as if it’s okay.
The thing about satire...is that it typically works best in small doses, which is why Petri’s column is the perfect medium for her message. Creating a collection served up in book form risks reader exhaustion from an overdose of snark. I found I could only appreciate her oeuvre—and keep my blood pressure at safe levels—by taking in a few essays at a time.
As a columnist for the Washington Post, Petri shows that we’ve come a long way since Art Buchwald. Her barbed perspective owes more to the cinematic surrealism of David Lynch, conjuring a reality where what was once thought impossible has become improbably normal.
