Mrs. Parker and the Not-So-Nice Review

In high school, I discovered Dorothy Parker: an acerbic, darkly witty writer of the Jazz Age. At 15, I thought she was great. All year, I hauled around an anthology of her essays in my backpack, waiting for the chance to quote her in a suitably derisive way.

But no one at school gave me a hard time -- they merely watched me skulk around in bleached jeans, fancying myself a secret member of The Algonquin Round Table -- and eventually, I put Dorothy away.

Her spirit lives on in a book review I wrote over the summer. Parker was a famously harsh reviewer, savaging such works as The House at Pooh Corner by A. A. Milne.

Read on for my review of the 2021 novel Bewilderment.

https://genealogiesofmodernity.org/journal/2022/8/17/bewilderment-getting-modern-parenting-right-and-wrong