Starred review from May 8, 2023
Beach, who is best known for her viral 2019 essay documenting her fraught relationship with social media starlet Caroline Calloway, debuts with an elegant memoir-in-essays that mixes gossipy anecdotes about that friendship with gorgeously rendered reflections on her own life. “Distressed Denim” explores the sexual politics of Abercrombie and Fitch’s low-rise jeans (“There are no atheists in an Abercrombie dressing room,” it begins, “so I prayed... please fit, please look good for one goddamn time”) from Beach’s perspective as an insecure 14-year-old; “Self-Centered” recounts Beach’s sophomore year in college, when she met Calloway, with whom she ghostwrote a book proposal and countless social media posts; “Abortion Abortion” deals with Beach’s experiences as a volunteer at an abortion clinic in spring 2017; “Wifeliness” examines in painful detail the swift death of Beach’s mother-in-law, Mary Ellen, due to pancreatic cancer. Throughout, Beach’s wide-eyed honesty and utter lack of pretense (“There’s no good way to end a memoir, short of elegantly dropping dead after you write the final sentence,” she muses at one point) contribute to the sense that she’s mined every inch of her experience for these pieces. Incisive and candid, this is a must-read. Agent: Cait Hoyt and Mollie Glick, CAA.