MONSTERS

In this unflinching, deeply personal book that expands on her instantly viral Paris Review essay, "What Do We Do with the Art of Monstrous Men?" Claire Dederer asks: Can we love the work of Hemingway, Polanski, Miles Davis, or Picasso? Should we love it? Does genius deserve special dispensation? Is male monstrosity the same as female monstrosity? Highly topical, morally wise, honest to the core, Monsters has incited a cultural conversation about whether and how we can separate artists from their art.

"Excellent ... A work of deep thought and self-scrutiny that honors the impossibility of the book’s mission. Dederer comes to accept her love for the art that has shaped her by facing the monstrous, its potential in herself, and the ways it can exist alongside beauty and pathos. Go ahead, she tells us, love what you love. It excuses no one."

—Melissa Febos in The New Yorker

“Monsters is extraordinary—engaging, enraging, provocative, and brilliant. It’s like a long conversation with your smartest friend. I am buying this book for everyone I know.”

—Ann Patchett, author of Tom Lake and Bel Canto

“It’s a secret glance passed between friends, only in book form … exhilarating … Monsters is a dazzling book.”

—Time magazine

“Superb … smart, informed, nuanced and very funny.”

—Maureen Corrigan, Fresh Air

“Part memoir, part treatise, and all treat…nimble, witty…her exquisitely reasoned vindication of Lolita brought tears to my eyes…This is a book that looks boldly down the cliff of roiling waters below and jumps right in, splashes around playfully, isn’t afraid to get wet. How refreshing.”

—Alexandra Jacobs, The New York Times

“In Monsters: A Fan’s Dilemma, Claire Dederer asks, with witty self-deprecation, how we should respond to art from artists guilty of morally squalid deeds. The question has become especially volatile in the west as the cultural orthodoxies of a small but powerful minority disintegrate and previously scorned and marginalised voices become more assertive. Instead of rushing to the barricades of ongoing culture wars, Dederer offers – and enacts – a way of thinking that acknowledges the ever growing diversity of intellectual and moral life.”

—Pankaj Mishra, The Guardian

“What a treat it is: funny, lively and convivial, constantly in argument with itself… Dederer’s tone and willingness to be wrong and confused, along with her seductive, intimate style, bring the subject to new life… How rare and nourishing this sort of roaming thought is and what a joy to read. How moving, too, the underpinning adoration that allows the difficult questions to be asked. You are left wishing Dederer would apply her generous mind to every other niggling unfinished hang-up that haunts our culture.”

—Megan Nolan, Sunday Times, Book of the Week

“Monsters is an incredible book, the best work of criticism I have read in a very long time. It’s thrillingly sharp, appropriately doubtful, and more fun than you would believe, given the pressing seriousness of the subject matter. Claire Dederer’s mind is a wonder, her erudition too; I now want her to apply them to everything I’m interested in.”

—Nick Hornby, author of High Fidelity, About A Boy, and Dickens and Prince

“Bringing erudition, emotion, and a down-to-earth style to this pressing problem, Dederer presents her finest work to date.”

—Kirkus, starred review

"Dederer, author of the restless and lusty Gen-X memoir Love and Trouble: A Midlife Reckoning, just keeps getting better and smarter. In Monsters, she ties herself in intellectual and emotional knots, poking holes in her own arguments with gusto. In contrast to so many nonfiction books adapted from articles, Monsters doesn’t stretch a singular thesis over several hundred pages. Quite the contrary, it’s absolutely exhilarating to read the work of someone so willing to crumple up her own argument like a piece of paper, throw it away and start anew. She’s constantly challenging her own assumptions, more than willing to find flaws in her own thinking."

—San Francisco Chronicle

“Conversational, clear and bold without being strident... Dederer showcases her critical acumen...In this age of moral policing, Ms. Dederer’s instincts to approach such material with an open mind—and heart—are laudable." 

—The Wall Street Journal

“Dederer’s candid appraisal of her own relationship with troubling artists and the lucidity with which she explores what it means to love their work open fresh ways of thinking about problematic artists. Contemplative and willing to tackle the hard questions head on, this pulls no punches.”

—Publishers Weekly, starred review

“An exhilarating, shape-shifting exploration of the perilous boundaries between art and life. This timely book inhabits both the marvelous and the monstrous with generosity and wit.”

—Jenny Offill, author of Dept. of Speculation and Weather

“In a world that wants you to think less—that wants, in fact, to do your thinking for you, Monsters is that rare work, beyond a book, that reminds you of your sentience. It’s wise and bold and full of the kind of gravitas that might even rub off.”

—Lisa Taddeo, author Three Women and Animal

"The masterstroke of Dederer’s book is that she doesn’t seek to duck her ambivalence. She doesn’t try to magic it away by finding an expert or thinking harder, although her book has crystalline intellectual force...Denounce Allen or Polanski all she wants, she realizes, their work still calls to her, and from that stubborn fact she has fashioned a book of depth and candor about what it is to be heartbroken by an artist whose work we also happen to love....So on point is Monsters: A Fan’s Dilemma about the historical moment in which we currently find ourselves, you want to carry it around with you and whip it out at every bar or dinner party."

—Tom Shone, Avenue magazine 

“An invigorating, engrossing, and deeply intelligent book. By guiding us through her critical dilemmas, Dederer performs an act of generosity: she allows the reader the space and encouragement to interrogate their own beliefs. Monsters made me laugh, argue, tear up, and most importantly, think.”

—Julia May Jonas, author of Vladimir

“Dederer provides a fascinating new way of looking at how the work and lives of problematic artists are bound together. She poses so many topical questions, plays with so many pertinent ideas, that I'm still thinking about this book long after I finished.”

—Claire Fuller, author of Unsettled Ground and Bitter Orange

“A blisteringly erudite and entertaining read. Dederer holds the moral ambiguity of her subject matter, landing her arguments with precision and flair. It's a book that deserves to be widely read and will provoke many conversations.”

— Nathan Filer, author of The Shock of the Fall

“Slyly funny, emotionally honest, and full of raw passion, Claire Dederer’s important book about what to do when artists you love do things you hate breaks new ground, making a complex cultural conversation feel brand new. Monsters elegantly takes on far more than ‘cancel culture’—it offers new insights into love, ambition, and what it means to be an artist, a citizen, and a human being.”

— Ada Calhoun, author of Also A Poet

“A valuable meditation on some of the era’s most urgent cultural questions . . . Emerging from Dederer’s reflections is the plain truth that every personal response to art is inseparable not only from the artist’s past but also the history of each member of its audience.”

—Library Journal

“[An] insightful exploration . . . Dederer’s case studies include Roman Polanski, Woody Allen, and Miles Davis, whose work she considers brilliant and important. What’s a fan to do? Dederer offers nuanced answers, challenging the assumption that boycotting is always the best response.”

—Booklist

You can order Monsters here:

Amazon

Amazon UK

IndieBound