Didion-esque Meghan Daum & The Unspeakable

Farrar, Straus and Giroux will publish Meghan Daum‘s new collection of original essays, The Unspeakable, this November 18 and it is starting to get a ton of attention. It’s been on all the “Best Books for Fall” lists, including the one from the smart people at Refinery29 who say, “Meghan Daum might just be the new Joan Didion: a whip-smart, incisive, and often hilarious cultural commentator whose personal essays will stand the test of time. Better pay attention.”

This week The New Yorker has the first serial of Meghan’s essay, “Difference Maker” – where she writes about her work as a foster care advocate and her reluctance to have children of her own. Pull up a chair and read it here.

There are a ton of great advance quotes for The Unspeakable – from Leslie Jamison, Geoff Dyer, Hilton Als, Sigrid Nunez and this one, from one of my favorite brilliant people, Bernard Cooper:

“Here’s the skinny on Meghan Daum: she’s one of the most humane, entertaining, and articulate contrarians you’re likely to encounter in any book. She challenges our assumptions—and her own—in the bracing, unsentimental manner of great British essayists such as William Hazlitt and George Orwell. Her precision is Didion-esque. Her humor detonates unexpectedly. She writes with a candor that is never indulgent because she effortlessly extrapolates from personal experience the ways of the world at large. In page after page, Daum pinpoints aspects of love, grief, and daily survival that you’ve sensed vaguely but have never found the words for. To read this book is to begin to grasp the intricacies of living in a fresh and penetrating way. I solemnly promise, lucky reader, you are about to be changed.” —Bernard Cooper, author of The Bill From My Father

And in case you missed it – Meghan’s phenomenal cover story about Lena Dunham that ran in the September 14 issue of the New York Times Magazine is here. And the interview with Meghan about doing the interview ( ! ) is here.

Pre-order The Unspeakable from your local independent bookstore or from one of the sites on Meghan’s website here.