Trick Mirror by Jia Tolentino

From one of the brightest young chroniclers of US culture comes this dazzling collection of essays on the internet, the self, feminism and politics We are living in the era of the self, in an era of malleable truth and widespread personal and political delusion. In these nine interlinked essays, Jia Tolentino, the New Yorker's brightest young talent, explores her own coming of age in this warped and confusing landscape. From the rise of the internet to her own appearance on an early reality TV show; from her experiences of ecstasy - both religious and chemical - to her uneasy engagement with our culture's endless drive towards 'self-optimisation'; from the phenomenon of the successful American scammer to her generation's obsession with extravagant weddings, Jia Tolentino writes with style, humour and a fierce clarity about these strangest of times. Following in the footsteps of American luminaries such as Susan Sontag, Joan Didion and Rebecca Solnit, yet with a voice and vision all her own, Jia Tolentino writes with a rare gift for elucidating nuance and complexity, coupled with a disarming warmth. This debut collection of essays announces her exactly the sort of voice we need to hear from right now - and for many years to come.

This is a collection of nine winding essays that center on the sociopolitical concerns of a complex, reflective, leftist feminist in the wake of the 2016 election.

The best essays, in my opinion, are the the first (“The I in Internet,” an exploration of identity and opinion in the age of social media, the internet's cultural shift from affinity to opposition, and the monolithic platforms that monetize identity and opposition), the third (“Always Be Optimizing,” on how the modern, intelligent woman is de facto subject to insufferable and unattainable beauty ideals), and the last (“I Thee Dread,” a meditation on the author's negative stance on weddings and marriage, through their history as anti-feminist and patriarchal traditions/institutions). I liked these because they reflect my own dissonances, reflections, and the complexity and nuances of feminism and identity generally. These essays resonated, and though I didn't always agree with her conclusions (too alarmist, but that makes sense in a Trump era), they made me think.

The rest felt intellectually over-wrought, too long, and explore well-known territory (at least, for me). I started to get bored as essays devolved more into anthologies of others' works of criticism than anything refreshingly her own.

Overall, this collection proves Tolentino as a respectable intellectual and wonderful writer, and for that, I enjoyed it.

For me these essays were like revisiting all the best parts of my favorite philosophy of sex and gender class. Made me repeatedly go “wow she just put THAT into words.”

One sentence synopsis... A sharp collection of essays examining millennial self-deception (and exploration) through drugs, religion, feminism, and reality tv.

Read it if you liked... other popular culture essayists like Chuck Klosterman. If you've ever taken a barre class, shopped at Outdoor Voices, or eaten at sweetgreens - this is for you.

Further reading... Emily Nussbaum, Jenny Odell, Chuck Klosterman, or all Jia's articles for The New Yorker.

A lot of essays I read have a vaguely superficial feeling to them, like the writer is on the right track, but didn't pursue it far enough before publishing. Tolentino is a writer with whom you feel, oh, she went there. The few occasions when she doesn't (her parents' legal troubles, Hillary Clinton) stick out because she's doing it the rest of the time. She is especially strong when writing about the internet, social media, and sexual violence.