megza's review against another edition
2.0
I really, really wanted to like this book. I wanted to like it so much. I liked that they were short essays about life a twenty-something trying to figure it all out. I was fine with the self absorption (that's part of being in your twenties, trying to figure it all out, and writing autobiographically). I did not mind that it lacked a sense of urgency. But I felt like the essays could have been more focused and the writing was on its way to being really good but didn't quite make it. That said, I'm still rooting for her and if she publishes another book, I'll read it.
lindseyloeper's review against another edition
2.0
This a quick book to read, I needed something that wasn't complicated and easy to absorb. The beginning essays were annoying because they're about annoying high school and college students. The later essays were more relatable, and the essay about Gould's breakup with her early 20s boyfriend was point-on. I thought the essays were all going to be about Gawker and young literary types inNYC, but it's about a depressed woman.
pantsantspants's review against another edition
4.0
Loved the introduction, especially the very last paragraph.
petersonline's review against another edition
4.0
There's a scene in Jeffrey Eugenides' novel The Marriage Plot in which Madeleine, the main character, wakes up one morning after a dead-end party, hungover in her messy apartment. She gets a text from her parents saying that they're at the door of her apartment, waiting to be buzzed in. It's the day of her graduation. I remember reading this scene a couple years back and resonating heavily with it, it reminded me of the days my parents would come to visit me at school the morning after a bender that involved throwing up and getting three hours of sleep. It's definitely a lot better to look back on those moments with a sober mindset and let out a little laugh, but the nostalgia is still heart-wrenching. What it felt like to read that particular scene was what it felt like to read the entirety of Emily Gould's short essay/memoir collection And The Heart Says Whatever.
The title of this book is particularly funny and resonant to me, because it reminds me of something I would say. In fact, so much of my love of Emily Gould's work is due to the fact that I see much of myself in her. I feel like we process things similarly, and try to go about life with a very "whatever" sort of attitude while, deep down, very much actually caring about every minute detail of life. "And the heart says whatever," as a title, reminds me of myself because whenever I'm disinterested in something, or frustrated about something, I'll describe it as being "whatever." For example, when someone asks me about *insert annoying thing here* I'll respond by saying "Yeah, that's just kind of whatever." Not a sentence that makes much grammatical sense, but perfectly encapsulates what I'm trying to say. The title resonates with me because, most of the time, matters of the heart are very much just "whatever."
The essays in this collection center around Emily Gould being in her 20s in New York City. Save for one essay in the beginning, a resonant story about her senior year of high school, preparing to go to Kenyon College with much uncertainty. A running theme through this book is her long-term, rocky relationship with a guy named Joseph. Joseph is a recurring character in much of the stories. However, like many of the characters Gould introduces throughout the collection, they are merely props that inform the way Gould moves through the world, how she thinks about herself and everyone around her. Gould's narration in this story reminded me of the protagonists in Katie Kitamura's A Separation and Lynn Steger Strong's Want. It's a meandering narration style that doesn't leave anything out, allowing you to fully live in Gould's head. For someone who once got in trouble for being a chronic oversharer, I think Gould's oversharing is more of a gift than anything.
Emily Gould rose to fame on the internet during a time where, if anyone expressed even a hint of sadness, they were seen as a crazy oversharer. Gould burst onto the scene unafraid to express her opinions about herself and other people. Backlash quickly ensued, to the point where she got publicly dragged by Jimmy Kimmel on Larry King Live, with Kimmel even going so far as to say that Gould was "going to hell" because of her involvement in the Gawker Stalker Map, a now-defunct way to know where celebrities were at any given time. Emily Gould is an example of someone whose biting critiques delivered behind a screen got thrown into the limelight, drawing a separation between Gould the person and Gould the social media user. Gould the person seems like a perfectly likable woman, whose love of celebrity gossip and Lana Del Rey's music make her someone I would love to be friends with. However, even in a time where oversharing is more common than ever, many still cringe at people who have made an entire career out of it.
That being said, I'm proud to be a part of Gould's little fanbase of people who love the way she can articulate what's going on in the zeitgeist, and how she can connect it back to her personal life. And The Heart Says Whatever, while a bit outdated because it came out in 2010, is a great, albeit forgettable foray into Gould's skills as a memoirist. I recommend reading this book, and then reading her article "Replaying My Shame" on The Cut right after, for a perfect display of how Emily Gould and her writing have grown over the past 10ish years.
The title of this book is particularly funny and resonant to me, because it reminds me of something I would say. In fact, so much of my love of Emily Gould's work is due to the fact that I see much of myself in her. I feel like we process things similarly, and try to go about life with a very "whatever" sort of attitude while, deep down, very much actually caring about every minute detail of life. "And the heart says whatever," as a title, reminds me of myself because whenever I'm disinterested in something, or frustrated about something, I'll describe it as being "whatever." For example, when someone asks me about *insert annoying thing here* I'll respond by saying "Yeah, that's just kind of whatever." Not a sentence that makes much grammatical sense, but perfectly encapsulates what I'm trying to say. The title resonates with me because, most of the time, matters of the heart are very much just "whatever."
The essays in this collection center around Emily Gould being in her 20s in New York City. Save for one essay in the beginning, a resonant story about her senior year of high school, preparing to go to Kenyon College with much uncertainty. A running theme through this book is her long-term, rocky relationship with a guy named Joseph. Joseph is a recurring character in much of the stories. However, like many of the characters Gould introduces throughout the collection, they are merely props that inform the way Gould moves through the world, how she thinks about herself and everyone around her. Gould's narration in this story reminded me of the protagonists in Katie Kitamura's A Separation and Lynn Steger Strong's Want. It's a meandering narration style that doesn't leave anything out, allowing you to fully live in Gould's head. For someone who once got in trouble for being a chronic oversharer, I think Gould's oversharing is more of a gift than anything.
Emily Gould rose to fame on the internet during a time where, if anyone expressed even a hint of sadness, they were seen as a crazy oversharer. Gould burst onto the scene unafraid to express her opinions about herself and other people. Backlash quickly ensued, to the point where she got publicly dragged by Jimmy Kimmel on Larry King Live, with Kimmel even going so far as to say that Gould was "going to hell" because of her involvement in the Gawker Stalker Map, a now-defunct way to know where celebrities were at any given time. Emily Gould is an example of someone whose biting critiques delivered behind a screen got thrown into the limelight, drawing a separation between Gould the person and Gould the social media user. Gould the person seems like a perfectly likable woman, whose love of celebrity gossip and Lana Del Rey's music make her someone I would love to be friends with. However, even in a time where oversharing is more common than ever, many still cringe at people who have made an entire career out of it.
That being said, I'm proud to be a part of Gould's little fanbase of people who love the way she can articulate what's going on in the zeitgeist, and how she can connect it back to her personal life. And The Heart Says Whatever, while a bit outdated because it came out in 2010, is a great, albeit forgettable foray into Gould's skills as a memoirist. I recommend reading this book, and then reading her article "Replaying My Shame" on The Cut right after, for a perfect display of how Emily Gould and her writing have grown over the past 10ish years.
misscbingley's review against another edition
3.0
I keep flip-flopping between "liked it" and "it was okay." I missed out on the whole Emily-Gould-is-all-over-the-internet era, but I've since caught up on all of the Gawker/NYTimes/ex-boyfriend drama that played out online (the Vanity Fair article "You've Got (Hate) Mail" provides a thorough summation). Her memoir is perceptive. She is at times eloquent. The book is also biting and unapologetically self-absorbed. She can be self-deprecating, but I sometimes got the sense that it was just for show. She has a knack for painting vivid, unflattering pictures, and she effortlessly skewers everything and everyone in her path, including herself, including the people she claims to admire. It makes for juicy reading, but I'm not sure how I'd feel about knowing her in real life, at least the Emily of this period. She says at the beginning that she hasn't changed, she would do all of it over again. I wonder if her stance has altered at all as she's aged? I did find myself hoping she'd publish another spill-it-all memoir, so I suppose I enjoyed it at least that much.
themlin666's review against another edition
5.0
My boyfriend gave this book to me as a present. It's an amazing book. It's the fastest I've ever read a book. It's funny, captivating, and interesting. It's about a person who goes through many changes in a handful of years. It's well written and I suggest it to anyone.
mirandacactusreads's review against another edition
4.0
Will I always be a sucker for essay collections about being a young woman in New York? I don't know why, but this kind of book has always fascinated me, way before I lived here myself. Maybe it's the dreamy way an essay can capture how being a person living in the city is somehow minuscule and unimportant, and also the most significant thing you can do. I'll always enjoy a collection like this if the author does a good job of telling stories about their life, making me care about their interactions, and invested in their relationships and working habits, which Emily Gould definitely does.