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My Misspent Youth: Essays
by
Meghan Daum
Cultural Writing. An essayist in the tradition of Joan Didion, Meghan Daum is one of the most celebrated nonfiction writers of her generation, widely recognized for her fresh, provocative approach with which she unearths the hidden fault lines in the American landscape. From her well-remember New Yorker essays about the financial demands of big-city ambition and the ethere...more
Paperback, 200 pages
Published
March 2nd 2001
by Grove/Atlantic, Inc.
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UGH. this book makes me so glad that i left new york. why? because i'd have to deal with people like meghan daum all fucking day. people who feel the need to write 1000+ word essays on things like their hatred of carpet (although i know you carpet-haters like to pontificate on that subject), people who think that their neurotic/workaholic tendencies are funny and interesting as opposed to boring and draining, people who make hardly any money yet rent apartments in fancy neighborhoods and then wr...more
This collection was all over the place. I loved a few of the stories, including the title essay, the one about slaving away as a publishing peon in NY, and the first one in the book, about the gripping disappointment of that First Internet Romance. Certain essays almost felt like having a conversation with an old friend, although it felt like a conversation that took place ten years ago, seeing as the book was published in 2001. Something in the tone of several of the stories felt cozily, nostal...more
So although I was initially irritated by Ms. Daum's class-consciousness and the pretentiousness of it, on the other hand I really identified with her need to analyze why she was where she was by examining the contextual details, the outer trappings. Her speciality is finding the "ness" of all kind of nesses, something that is a bit of a personal hobby of mine as well. Like analyzing the upper class behaviors of middle class kids who to go to school with upper class kids to explain why ...more
Whenever I read essay-style memoirs I get my hopes up that the writers will be immensely funny, brilliantly witty, mindbogglingly intelligent or at the very least my kindred spirits who have the same deep thoughts as me plus that ability to express them in writing. Most of the time I'm let down. Meghan Daum's essays, aptly enough, revolve around the theme of being let down. Or more specifically, being let down after developing a whole big fantasy about how some situation will play out.
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My Misspent Youth is centered, Meghan Daum explains in the foreword, around the idea of trappings, of people giving more energy tending to the trinkets, hobbies, and kitsch involved in expressing one’s personality than to the actual personality itself. At first this seemed to me an unnecessary stretch. It’s a collection of random essays, Daum, I think I can handle it. In reality, though, each essay did negotiate this theme--if on the fringes, if this idea of trappings-over-reality isn’t inherent...more
This book is very clever - this was my second time reading. Daum is witty and a pleasure to read. However, I think I enjoyed it more the first time through: in this second reading, some of her self-assurance rubbed me the wrong way. On the one hand, she seems to be laying herself bare and revealing her petty (and amusing) hang-ups, but I had the feeling she still felt herself the better for them. She recognizes that it's ridiculous to feel superior over her hatred of carpet, but she stills does....more
I loved the first essay so much. This made me realize how well an essay can be written. To me, that first essay is the perfect essay. It had all the elements there, even that little torque of surprise. I just like her "voice." It rings so true to me and it isn't too arrogant, or if it is, she keeps itself in check without getting too muddled in her points. I like the more personal essays about her life rather than the ones about the polyamorous clan or the airline crew. I don't k...more
I first read and really liked Meghan Daum's essay, "Variations on Grief" in my non-fiction class. Also, I really like the essay, "On the Fringes of the Physical World." The essay, "My Misspent Youth" after which the book was titled is making me feel a lot better about the amount of debt I'm in, which seems to be less than the debt she was in at the time, and it's good to read a book of non-fiction by someone who wasn't like 88 years old when she decided to write it....more
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I think the Didion comparisons are apt, especially in essays like the title piece, which really does remind me of "Goodbye to All That," Didion's famous essay about leaving NYC. That said, the horrible truth to me is that Didion maybe works best a little at a time, an essay or two per book that totally knocks you out, and a lot of others that seem, taken together, sort of self-indulgent.
It's an unfair charge to level at Daum or Didion, and I recognize that: if the real stuf...more
It's an unfair charge to level at Daum or Didion, and I recognize that: if the real stuf...more
I find it to be pretty rare that you come across a whole book of essays that you'd like to re-read. One or two in a collection, sure. In my spotty memory My Misspent Youth is a mix of remembered hits and half-remembered, intriguing possibilities.
There are some writers where, each letter they write is like Zorro's 'Z'; ripped onto the page and ready to burst into flames. Not Daum, not so much. She's not a funny Sedaris-type. Nor overly self-reverential and self-serious in that way me...more
There are some writers where, each letter they write is like Zorro's 'Z'; ripped onto the page and ready to burst into flames. Not Daum, not so much. She's not a funny Sedaris-type. Nor overly self-reverential and self-serious in that way me...more
The first few essays absolutely get 4 stars--they are sharp, insightful, and honest. After that things go downhill a bit--Daum's writing is still strong, but the chord-striking insights begin to disappear. She's at her best when her social commentary intersects with narrative accounts of her own experiences. Her skills as a traditional journalist are less compelling: she doesn't manage to bring anything particularly unique to topics she has simply "investigated" rather than lived. as e...more
This is likely a collection of her early essays. Her work has only improved but I did enjoy her essays, especially the title essay about being a young person in New York with college debt and the challenges that brings. She is a smart sassy writer and I like her intelligent take on things. Some of it is laugh out loud. This book was I think her first and it shows. Really enjoyed her newest book. She is an LA Times columnist and a woman to keep an eye on for her future works.
I really like meghan daum's essays, in part because I usually identify with them. most of these were written when she was in her mid-20s, I think, and I found myself wondering how she would feel about them now, 5-10 years later. a lot of them seem very self-absorbed, which in some ways just seems age-appropriate, but was at times off-putting. I like to think she's evolved. the title essay is fantastic, though - even ~10 years after first reading it in the new yorker, I loved it. overall I t...more
Daum says a lot of things that many others would never dare to touch. "Carpet is Mungers" is nothing short of brilliant, where she asserts that she couldn't continue a relationship with someone who liked carpet and can acknowledge the shallowness of such a statement.
These essays were eminently relatable to my own experience of growing up in NJ and going away to a small liberal arts college. Presumably this would expand my horizons, which I learned quickly was code for "...more
These essays were eminently relatable to my own experience of growing up in NJ and going away to a small liberal arts college. Presumably this would expand my horizons, which I learned quickly was code for "...more
Some of these essays are absolutely fantastic -- striking in that way that Daum says exactly what you feel but maybe hadn't formulated in your mind well enough to articulate until you read her words and think "That's it -- that's exactly it!" Other essays this collection, not so much. They tend a little toward ponderous. But for the ones that are great, get this book. You'll go back to it again and again.
I thought it was pretty good, not spectacular. Really liked "My Misspent Youth" (the essay) and her take on the polyamory people. The grief one might not have been the best choice to end the book with -- it's too depressing and kind of mean; like others, I really hope that friend's parents never read it. In general, though, I appreciate how she admits her feelings of superiority.
Recommended, except for the essay "American Shiksa," which was odd and borderline offensive. It's a little odd to read some of these and think, "Wait, did I write this in another life?" But I've always been a self-absorbed overthinker, so maybe it's not that odd.
Witty, insightful, original, semi-philosophical discourse on everyday things. Simply wonderful. Motivates me to venture deeper into the world of Essay collections. Definitely one of my best (impulsive) book purchases.
Read this a while ago, forgot to review it...charming, light, fun to read about a 20 something living in New York. I liked it enough to sign up for her weekly column in the LA Times.
Smart, compelling essay collection by the LA Times columnist. The one about the death of her high school friend is brutally honest and insightful about how we remember someone.
something tells me this is going to annoy me. oh well. i'm going to give it a 10 page chance.
(((i stand corrected))) while most of the collection is not timeless, it did not annoy me.
(((i stand corrected))) while most of the collection is not timeless, it did not annoy me.
The essay about her friend who catches a deadly disease cleaning out his storage space is pretty memorable, although kind of cold. I always liked the cover of this one.
The title essay is the best and gets living in NYC in your late 20's on the precipice of 30 brilliantly...the others are a little twee, but enjoyable on the whole.
I've moved around a lot in the past 6 years. This collection of essays is one of the few books that hasn't been banished to boxes in my parent's house.
Incredible writing cover to cover, just not enough stuff that I was all that interested in. The final essay is an absolute gut-punch.
Been meaning to read this for many years ever since I read Daum's essays in the New Yorker. It didn't disappoint.
the most enjoyable essay was about her life as a schoolgirl oboist and about giving up instrumental practice and play
Kate
rated it
Recommends it for:
Readers who enjoy having the point of the essay beat over their heads
Shelves:
memoir
2.5 star rating
I really liked the beginning of this book. The essays were really well put together and she made her point without taking out her nerf bat and beating the reader over the head with it, like she did in some of the essays towards the back, which I didn't particularly care for and why it took me so long to finish this darn book.
The essays that I would recommend reading the book for are:
1. Publishing and Other Near-Death Experiences
2. Toy Chi...more
I really liked the beginning of this book. The essays were really well put together and she made her point without taking out her nerf bat and beating the reader over the head with it, like she did in some of the essays towards the back, which I didn't particularly care for and why it took me so long to finish this darn book.
The essays that I would recommend reading the book for are:
1. Publishing and Other Near-Death Experiences
2. Toy Chi...more
Another review written while learning to live with my mouse who I've now named Cecil.
Cecil has driven me to Dunkin Donuts at night where I get a lot of reading done. So I read My Misspent Youth. I identified with this writer a lot sadly but maybe with a smidgen less class consciousness.
The last essay was heartbreaking and I really felt quite awful after reading it.
It's hard sometimes to tell how self-aware she is. Sometimes she still seemed very hung up on i...more
Cecil has driven me to Dunkin Donuts at night where I get a lot of reading done. So I read My Misspent Youth. I identified with this writer a lot sadly but maybe with a smidgen less class consciousness.
The last essay was heartbreaking and I really felt quite awful after reading it.
It's hard sometimes to tell how self-aware she is. Sometimes she still seemed very hung up on i...more
great writer - glad I found her - enjoyable insight
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Meghan Daum is the author of Life Would Be Perfect If I Lived In That House, a personal chronicle of real estate addiction and obsessive fascination with houses, as well as the novel The Quality of Life Report and the essay collection My Misspent Youth. Since 2005 she has written a weekly column for The Los Angeles Times, which appears on the op-ed page every Thursday. She has contributed to publi...more
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