Nobody's Looking at You

Starred review from October 15, 2018
Malcolm (Forty-One False Starts: Essays on Artists and Writers) assembles an eclectic group of essays, mainly culled from the New Yorker and New York Review of Books, most of them from the past decade, into this outstanding collection. Varied and witty, the book includes profiles of such people as fashion designer Eileen Fisher, with her “aesthetic of elegant plainness” and concert pianist Yuja Wang, “whose tiny dresses and spiky heels” draw attention to the contrast between her petite frame and the “forcefulness she achieves at her instrument.” Several essays are literary critiques, touching on, among other points, New Yorker writer Joseph Mitchell’s ability to “bend actuality to artistic will” and how Tolstoy follows the “deep structures” of dream logic in Anna Karenina. Malcolm also explores the differing ways millennials and baby boomers view sexual harassment, email etiquette, and the high-stakes drama of John Roberts’s Supreme Court nomination hearings, where little was learned about his judicial philosophy, but revelations about character emerged. With no weak selections and several strikingly prescient ones, this collection shows its author as a master of narrative nonfiction.

November 1, 2018
A master of the craft offers up sprightly and fervent essays.Malcolm's latest collection is a follow-up to Forty-One False Starts (2013), which was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award for Criticism. These 18 pieces, most previously published in the New Yorker and the New York Review of Books over the past 10 years, explore a pleasingly wide range of subjects. The first section consists of profiles. In the admiring titular piece, the author examines fashion designer Eileen Fisher, whose clothes "look as if they were heedlessly flung on rather than anxiously selected." Malcolm herself became part of Fisher's "kind of cult of the interestingly plain." A photo of the pianist Yuja Wang, an "existential prodigy," graces the cover of the book and is the subject of "Performance Artist." Malcolm seems as much impressed with the "characteristically outré," extremely short and tight dresses Wang wears when performing, accompanied by a pair of "sadistic high heels," as she is with Wang's musical brilliance. Things quiet down in "Three Sisters," about New York City's Argosy Bookshop and the accomplished women who run it. Then there's the "current sweetheart of liberal cable TV," MSNBC's Rachel Maddow; the author calls Maddow's show "TV entertainment at its finest." The second section has cultural takes, most with a political edge. Malcolm is struck by the "atmosphere of a cold war propaganda film" in the cable TV docuseries Sarah Palin's Alaska. The author's incisive article sorting out the recent Supreme Court confirmation hearings' hijinks is especially timely and scathing, while "Pandora's Click" examines "email's evil," more "like a dangerous power tool" than "harmless kitchen appliance." The last section covers literature and book reviews: Tolstoy, Constance Garnett's translations (which Malcolm loves), the Bloomsbury Group, Ted Hughes, and a resuscitating assessment of Norman Podhoretz's memoir Making It. Alexander McCall Smith's No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency novels are a "literary confection of...gossamer deliciousness."Intelligent, savvy, and stylish literary journalism.

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November 15, 2018

Originally published in The New Yorker and The New York Review of Books from the 1990s to 2018, these essays from critic Malcom (Forty-One False Starts) cover a gamut of topics and individuals, including fashion designer Eileen Fisher, pianist Yuja Wang, New York's Argosy Book Store, TV host Rachel Maddow, Sarah Palin's reality show, a hilarious piece on the perils of email, and analyses of Leo Tolstoy's Anna Karenina. The catchy title is attributed to Fisher's mother who said these words constantly to her daughter who would become hugely successful. An entry related to the confirmation of Supreme Court nominees David Souter, John Roberts, and Samuel Alito is particularly poignant when compared to contemporary proceedings. And in an excellent essay addressing the current state of Russian fiction translated into English, Malcolm parses older and newer attempts, criticizing efforts to "put Tolstoy into awkward contemporary-sounding English." This collection also contains reprints of notable book reviews, including those of Quentin Bell's Bloomsbury Recalled and a controversial biography of poet Ted Hughes. VERDICT Highly recommended for a range of readers, especially those interested in the various topics discussed. [See Prepub Alert, 8/27/18.]--Erica Swenson Danowitz, Delaware Cty. Community Coll. Lib., Media, PA

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