My Misspent Youth: Essays

"My Misspent Youth" is a welcome change from the usual kind of books I read, which are very technical computer textbooks. I just happend to come across this while searching Amazon for more computer books, when I noticed Ira Glass recomended this book. Being a "This American Life" fan (From NPR,) I just had to buy it.Overall I loved her writting style and long-flowing sentences. She has a well articulated stream-of-conscience process which I can easily connect with.Meghan states in the preface that this book has a point. That it's more than just a rambling dribble of essays. In truth, I could not find any actual point to her essays. Her essays are really just an introverted thought process during various situations in her life. But they're still interesting. Perhaps it's her great writting style which kept me interested.It's odd that I say that..."kept me interested." By the time I got to the middle of the book, (oh, after the third essay or so...) I realized I have absolutely nothing in common with this "chick", and why in the world am I still reading this stuff? After all, she's one of "those people" who actualy like hardwood floors in her house. Strange.She's *VERY* superficial. Way too critical -- even for a New Yorker. Unfairly harsh at times. I about tossed the book out when she mentioned how much she likes Jewish men, yet she couldn't stand the (non-jew) guys she dated who talked too much. HA!BUT...She's absolutely honost. She's highly motivated, with a strong work ethic. And even though she's critical, she's critical from both sides of an issue. She and I share deeper understandings and experiences of the world, like being the "poor" kid in college even though we were way smarter and better able to deal with "the real world" then the "rich" kids. We both had (have?) major financial hurdles to deal with after college, yet our perseverence and brains are keeping us ahead of others in our field. Perhaps it's these deeper virtues which draw me to her. But, like my title says, she made me feel just about every emotion I'm capable of feeling - which is the REAL reason I like her so much.- Richard G.

After reading just one essay by Meghan Daum when it first appeared in The New Yorker, coincidentally the title piece of MY MISSPENT YOUTH, I wanted more, more, more of her prose. So I was understandably thrilled when a recent web search turned up this first collection of her work and, having read it, I am even more thrilled. She is really, really good. She's so good, she's scary. Daum's pieces share in common what she calls a point, which someone else bent on stuffy superlatives might call an overarching theme. Either way, she's not imposing some pat formula on life but has pulled out a bona fide truth about the human condition in its many different circumstances, that we simultaneously operate in two worlds, one a concoction of dreams, prejudices and cultural conditioning, the other, reality. Each of her essays is a moment of reckoning, of understanding how the imagined world has tipped the real one, of having to bow to the real one. In unflinching prose that just sweeps along, she pursues truth as a player, occasionally as a witness. The quality of her work reminds me of what Carol Burnett said about having no choice but to become the star because she was a misfit in the chorus: Daum, incapable of following through on requests that she submit to puppy mill essaying on Gen-X preoccupations (she's about 31), has positioned herself in the territory of Joan Didion and our finest cultural commentators.

Meghan Daum is undoubtedly a skilled writer. She has a keen eye, when she uses it. She is also arrogant, a bit of a snob and very very young.I've been enjoying her essays in various magazines for some time now, and I was interested to learn that there is a collection of her writing, so I bought the book. As I started to read, I discovered that the essays started to run together in my mind. I was occasinally stopped short by her arrogance. When I read one essay at a time, these things did not happen, and I could go back to enjoying the fluently written, nicely observed essays about not much of anything. On the other hand, when I read them in a group, the weaknesses were more evident and the effect more of a whine.So, my advice is that if you like this kind of thing (smooth writing, essays making much of very little), you may well enjoy this book. I just urge you not to take the edge off by reading it all at once.

This did not sound like the musings of an inarticulate young woman lacking self-confidence and recounting events of a childhood she wished to ignore, or fix. These essays are personal insights into an always artistic, sometimes tortured, and often confused writer-in-training, just one who plays the oboe well.Meghan Daum deserves all the readers she has.

I was SO excited to dive into this book. Unfortunately, I ended up feeling misled by the title and description, both of which had suggested the essays revolved around Daum's experiences as a twenty-something living and working in publishing in New York. Instead, I found myself reading a prolonged discourse on carpeting, flight attendants, and a strange clan of polyamorists, respectively. Daum's skillful and entertaining writing makes up for most of the unexpected content, but I wish I had known prior to purchasing the book.

There are some points in this book when you would think that Megan is bipolar. She tears through people nuances ticks like a tornado, and then in the same breath admits the complete opposite of what she has just described. the beginning of the book had me interested, but near the end I felt her essays became mean spirited. It one thing to be perceptive and to admit things in your past you have done, but when there is no glimmer of enlightenment from these experiences within the prose it comes off a bit sociopathic.

I first read My Misspent Youth through the New Yorker website and was blown away by the fearless honesty and sharp writing. In reading the essay, the rest of My Misspent Youth did not disappoint. I look forward to reading more work by Meghan Daum