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snacks's review against another edition
3.0
3.5 stars. I got this book after reading and loving the titular essay online. I was bummed that I didn't enjoy the whole book as much as I had that initial essay. The first and second halves could barely hold my attention and kind of lagged on, but I liked parts III and IV. I recommend The Crane Wife essay to everyone, especially men who date women and women who date men: https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2019/07/16/the-crane-wife/
savvystory's review against another edition
4.0
As a sensitive, dramatic, creative type, I buy a lot of things in this book. Like two fucking tombstones, the humiliation of having needs, the desire to be yar, and boring love over narratively satisfying love. But the thing I don’t buy is that CJ Hauser is out here living her life for everyone else. As the reader, I am in fact in awe of the creative, colorful, community-filled life she’s led. She taught me a lot of lessons in this, including the meta lesson to stop worrying about whether you’re living an interesting life and just go live your interesting life.
krichardson's review against another edition
4.0
At first I thought this was going to be one of those memoirs where it's hard to tell why the author is interesting enough to read a memoir about, but since this is not really a memoir and really just an essay collection, it was not. By the end I felt like Hauser had really opened herself up and shown how she thinks, the good and the bad. Getting this up close and personal with someone who thinks so differently from myself was interesting and the writing was excellent.
tmiles's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
funny
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
relaxing
sad
fast-paced
4.0
slenkic's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
oakwrought's review against another edition
4.0
I like the original Essay and there is nothing that completely blew me out of the water but it was earnest and a good reminder of maybe how to focus our lives
lucyywaves's review against another edition
5.0
Blew me away and every essay was integral to the whole collection. I’m pretty speechless. My copy is heavily underlined with notes. Wow. Here to read all CJ Hauser’s works.