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70th out of 74 books
—
12 voters
My Misspent Youth: Essays
by
Meghan Daum
Meghan Daum is one of the most celebrated nonfiction writers of her generation, widely recognized for the fresh, provocative approach with which she unearths hidden fault lines in the American landscape. From her well-remembered New Yorker essays about the financial demands of big-city ambition and the ethereal, strangely old-fashioned allure of cyber relationships to her...more
Paperback, 200 pages
Published
March 2nd 2001
by Grove Press, Open City Books
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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
I'm still trying to figure out what I think about this. I hated "American Shiksa"; it could've been a brilliant satire but went a little haywire. The first few essays were well done; Daum's great at wrapping up her essays. She reminds me a lot of Didion (I know, what a refreshing, nuanced comparison). It's interesting to watch her strike a balance between detachment and investment. She claims the theme of this collection is the temptation of trappings to serve as life itself, and that much is ev...more
Meghan Daum is definitely one of my favourite American essayists that I have read.
She has a hilarious and sharp writing voice, and is able to relate her opinion clearly and discuss the events within her writing very concretely. It kind of doesn't matter what topic she is discussing because she seems to map out the story for you has you go along (as any good essayist should) and you will never feel lost or confused about "what's the point" in her writing. I always get excited when/if the writing...more
She has a hilarious and sharp writing voice, and is able to relate her opinion clearly and discuss the events within her writing very concretely. It kind of doesn't matter what topic she is discussing because she seems to map out the story for you has you go along (as any good essayist should) and you will never feel lost or confused about "what's the point" in her writing. I always get excited when/if the writing...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 she as a s...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.
I did enj...more
I did enj...more
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
These essays' strengths are the author's skill in the writing craft - structure both in the macro (narrative) and micro (sentence) level. Damn can she pull an essay together. It's always nice to read someone who knows how to handle an ending.
These essays' weaknesses are in the author's seeming inability to acknowledge her own failings without trying to justify those failings, in a backhanded, narrative-structure kind of way. I mean, good on her for actively acknowledging when she expresses idea...more
These essays' weaknesses are in the author's seeming inability to acknowledge her own failings without trying to justify those failings, in a backhanded, narrative-structure kind of way. I mean, good on her for actively acknowledging when she expresses idea...more
"Even though I was heading into my late twenties, I was still a child, ignorant of dance steps or health insurance, a prisoner of credit-card debt and student loans and the nagging feeling that I didn't want anyone to find me until I had pulled myself into some semblance of an adult. I was a true believer in the urban dream-- in years of struggle succumbing to brilliant success, in getting a break, in making it. Like most of my friends, I was selfish by design. To want was more virtuous than to...more
MAYBE 2.5 stars. This book of essays had some redeeming components. I really enjoyed the title essay, about Daum digging herself deeply into debt. I liked 'Music is My Bag,' about being an oboist and nerdy music people. And I enjoyed 'According to Women I'm Fairly Pretty' (about polyamory) and 'Inside the Tube' (about flight attendants). But I couldn't STAND Baum's obnoxiousness and vapidity in pieces like 'Carpet is Mungers,' 'On the Fringes of the Physical World,' and most especially 'Toy Chil...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 know, those had a...more
I'm not quite sure how to rate My Misspent Youth. There were several essays that sparkled with verve and insight and contained observations I'll be thinking about in the future. "On the Fringes of the Physical World" and "Inside the Tube" are the stand-outs, for me. "Carpet is Mungers" and "American Shiksa" were pretty much unintelligible to me, however. In both instances, I have NO IDEA what Daum is trying to articulate. Daum can come across as self-aware and candid about her various flaws, but...more
I Hated this book. Which is a funny thing to say, seeing as how the thing that bugged me about the book was how relentlessly negative and judgmental Daum was about almost every subject she undertook. By the end, I was just so weary of her hating/being better than everything, I couldn't wait for it to be over. Which was a shame, because the last essay was written (formatted?) really interestingly and appealingly, but the emotions involved were just so repulsive, that after the whole book of appro...more
Daum's collection of essays about the trappings of identity is sharp, keenly-observed, and well-written, though occasionally Daum's sweeping generalizations about "lesser" people veers from the caustically insightful to the offensively stereotypical. Daum walks the line between a witty dismantling of human foibles (which is charming) and a snarky bashing of those with less polish than herself (which is narcissistic), though occasionally she crosses that line and just sounds mean and egotistical....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.
Daum has an engaging voice, a...more
Daum has an engaging voice, a...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 stuff is inside, in the mi...more
It's an unfair charge to level at Daum or Didion, and I recognize that: if the real stuff is inside, in the mi...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 memoirs inheren...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 memoirs inheren...more
Loved this, my workshop professor this semester recommended it to me after I had a conversation with him about my writing and interest in the publishing world. Daum writes bluntly, but with an awesome sense of humour about her experience in the publishing world and living in New York, as well as really interesting essays about polyamorous relationships, stewardesses, and online relationships. I found her writing inspiring for my own essays and want to look into more books by this author.
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 evidenced i...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 think...more
Dated in a sort of charming way...her other books are less dated and much more polished, but there's something endearingly shaggy about this--reminded me a little of And The Heart Says Whatever, except Emily Gould is a lot more open about the ugly aspects of her personality which is really refreshing. Wish Daum had been a bit more self-aware, the way she is in Life Would Be Perfect If I Lived In That House, but overall a diverting and entertaining read.
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 "how to look down on others...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 "how to look down on others...more
I had read several of the essays from this collection in anthologies and had long wanted to read the whole. The anthologized essays are justly chosen and some of the other essays in the collection are surprises. Overall, the book feel thin, that is I wouldn't say I understand why these essays merited being collected as a book. The comparison to Joan Didion in the blurbs only seems right if you're talking about a clean, lucid style.
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.
This collection of essay is what the characters in "Girls" would write if they were more intellectual and less concerned with mass-audience laughter. While most of the essays were interesting, I was a little disappointed that they weren't necessarily all about her youth and growing up. I wanted more concrete examples of being in her twenties. But it was still a decent enough, quick read.
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.
One of Flavorpill's 25 Greatest Essay Collections of All Time: Daum dives head first into the culture and comes up with meat in her mouth. Her voice is fresh and her narratives daring, honest and endlessly entertaining.
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.
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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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