Monsters, reviewed

Monsters is out in the US and the UK and it has been reviewed more widely and more sympathetically than I could ever have dreamed. It was given pride of place on the cover of The New York Times Book Review, which described it as “part memoir, part treatise, and all treat.”

The great Melissa Febos, writing in The New Yorker, said: "Excellent...A work of deep thought and self-scrutiny that honors the impossibility of the book’s mission. Dederer comes to accept her love for the art that has shaped her by facing the monstrous, its potential in herself, and the ways it can exist alongside beauty and pathos. Go ahead, she tells us, love what you love. It excuses no one."

Time magazine said: “It’s a secret glance passed between friends, only in book form … exhilarating … Monsters is a dazzling book,” and Maureen Corrigan described it as “superb” on Fresh Air.

And Nick Hornby, writing in The Believer, said “This book is so damned smart: about films, books, art, and then, unexpectedly, about life … There is a lot more to be said about Monsters than I can manage here, but I hope you take over, in your book groups, and with your friends; I can’t think of a single person who wouldn’t benefit from reading it.”

Many other reviewers, on both sides of the Atlantic, said many other kind things. And even the reviewers who got in an argument with the book (part of its intended effect) treated it with seriousness and careful attention. I'm so moved and thrilled to be read so closely.