Book Review: Trick Mirror by Jia Tolentino
TITLE: TRICK MIRROR: REFLECTIONS ON SELF-DELUSION
AUTHOR: JIA TOLENTINO
PUBLISHER: PENGUIN RANDOM HOUSE
GENRE: NON-FICTION | LITERARY CRITICISM
Synopsis
Jia Tolentino is a peerless voice of her generation, tackling the conflicts, contradictions, and sea changes that define us and our time. Now, in this dazzling collection of nine entirely original essays, written with a rare combination of give and sharpness, wit and fearlessness, she delves into the forces that warp our vision, demonstrating an unparalleled stylistic potency and critical dexterity.
Trick Mirror is an enlightening, unforgettable trip through the river of self-delusion that surges just beneath the surface of our lives. This is a book about the incentives that shape us, and about how hard it is to see ourselves clearly through a culture that revolves around the self. In each essay, Tolentino writes about a cultural prism: the rise of the nightmare social internet; the advent of scamming as the definitive millennial ethos; the literary heroine’s journey from brave to blank to bitter; the punitive dream of optimization, which insists that everything, including our bodies, should become more efficient and beautiful until we die. Gleaming with Tolentino’s sense of humor and capacity to elucidate the impossibly complex in an instant, and marked by her desire to treat the reader with profound honesty, Trick Mirror is an instant classic of the worst decade yet.
Thoughts
Trick Mirror was everything I hoped it would be and more — a tall order when approaching a book with built-in expectations. I’ve always loved Jia’s voice at The New Yorker and her way of taking timely, cultural topics and making them digestible, yet highly intellectual (without being condescending) for our generation. Through her writing I can see why she’s been referred to as the Joan Didion of our time. In the collection of nine essays, Jia takes us back to her religious upbringing in Houston, Texas (born in Toronto - woo!!) and touches on her adolescence as a reality TV star and experience with drugs — all fascinating — but it was her feminist essays and discussions about the ‘cult of the difficult woman’ I enjoyed the most. They read like feature articles with anecdotes and arguments backed up by statistics and facts. I love the way her brain works (which is the highest form of compliment I could ever give). Some of Tolentino’s more controversial points of view I tend to agree with, so it was nice to see my thoughts reflected (no mirror pun intended) on the page. The last essay, I Thee Dread, was my favourite. If you’re looking for a break from fiction or heavy non-fiction, Trick Mirror is a genuine treat!