This is a very accessible book of essays. Some, particularly the literary criticism, were quite good, while, others, especially those in life and times, were not so good.

This book was published in 2012 and most of the essays seem to have been written earlier. In some instances Roiphe added a footnote addressing things that had changed since the essay was written. In 2016, there are even more disconnects, making the failure to indicate when written a real problem to evaluating the value of the essay (something unlikely to ever be said about Joan Didion's essays). But, that said Roiphe knows how to write and how to shake people up. I'm not sure she's someone I'd want to be friends with but I bet she would be fun to debate issues with.

There are a couple of essays that are worth commenting on given life in the US at the beginning of 2017. The first is "Elect Sister Frigidaire," which concerns Hillary Clinton at the time of her run for the Democrat nomination in 2008. It starts with the following sentence: "At some point in the course of her colorful and doomed presidential campaign, I notice I haven't met or encountered a single woman who likes Hillary Clinton." This sentence is footnoted with an update opining that since "reced[ing] into a semi-visible hardworking political role, she [Clinton] is less of a lightening rod than she once was." It is a perceptive essay and I wonder how Roiphe would update it now.

Next are the "The Angry Commenter" and "Twitter War." With respect to these, the only comment I have is that it is oh so much worse than when she wrote the essays and still, at least to me, makes no sense.

Finally, I would like to ask Roiphe why she included the last essay, called "Whiplash Girlchild in the Dark" that is about a young woman who makes S&M films and apparently also provided S&M services. Was there a point she was trying to make?