Monsters

An incredible book, the best work of criticism I have read in a very long time. Nick Hornby describes it as "an exhilarating, shape-shifting exploration of the perilous boundaries between art and life." It is a passionate, provocative, and blisteringly smart interrogation of how we experience art in the age of #MeToo, and whether we can separate an artist's work from their biography. What do we do with the art of monstrous men? Can we love the work of Roman Polanski and Michael Jackson, Hemingway and Picasso? Should we love it? Does genius deserve special dispensation? Is history an excuse? What makes women artists monstrous? And what should we do with beauty, and with our unruly feelings about it?

Claire Dederer explores these questions and our relationships with the artists whose behavior disrupts our ability to apprehend the work on its own terms. She interrogates her own responses and her own behavior, and she pushes the fan, and the reader, to do the same. Morally wise, deeply considered, and sharply written, "Monsters" gets to the heart of one of our most pressing conversations. Nathan Filer calls it "a blisteringly erudite and entertaining read... It's a book that deserves to be widely read and will provoke many conversations.".