(reading time : 4 min)
A naive and idealistic twenty-two-year-old from the Midwest, Adrienne Miller got her lucky break when she was hired as an editorial assistant at GQ magazine in the mid-nineties. Even if its sensibilities were manifestly mid-century—the martinis, powerful male egos, and unquestioned authority of kings—GQ still seemed the red-hot center of the literary world. It was there that Miller began learning how to survive in a man’s world. Three years later, she forged her own path, becoming the first woman to take on the role of literary editor of Esquire, home to the male writers who had defined manhood itself— Hemingway, Mailer, and Carver. Up against this old world, she would soon discover that it wanted nothing to do with a “mere girl.”
But this was also a unique moment in history that saw the rise of a new literary movement, as exemplified by McSweeney’s and the work of David Foster Wallace. A decade older than Miller, the mercurial Wallace would become the defining voice of a generation and the fiction writer she would work with most. He was her closest friend, confidant—and antagonist. Their intellectual and artistic exchange grew into a highly charged professional and personal relationship between the most prominent male writer of the era and a young woman still finding her voice.
This memoir—a rich, dazzling story of power, ambition, and identity—ultimately asks the question “How does a young woman fit into this male culture and at what cost?” With great wit and deep intelligence, Miller presents an inspiring and moving portrayal of a young woman’s education in a land of men.
Rating DNFed @63%
Review
I was excited when I first got my hands on this book in 2018. I had high hopes that it would become one of my favourite reads of 2024. However, as I delved into its pages, I realized I should have read it sooner.
The synopsis was what drew me to this book, as I don’t know anything about journalism or the author. I wanted to see how she, at a young age, evolved in a magazine made by and for men and what the cost of it was. Instead, I had a book divided into two parts: the first one about her job before Wallace and the second about after Wallace and their relationship. It was like the memoir turned into a romance, and I didn’t enjoy it.
The first part could have been more interesting. I could have compared it to a list of errands; you usually have a list of people, magazines, or whatever else she can list. I found reading dull and a chore, especially when you don’t know these people. It felt like she wanted to show off in those moments, and it also broke the pace; even if it’s a book for everyone, it feels like it’s for people from her field and not mundane people like us. The other moment, when she talked about her job, I didn’t find it very interesting. When she talks about something interesting, or at least you have a reaction as it’s not normal behaviour or event, it’s nearly dismissed as nothing. However, it was then that I would have liked to have something; I just wanted to shake her.
I stopped when I saw she would only talk about her relationship with Wallace. I was dragging my feet more as I read the book. When you started to have Wallace appear more and more, I felt it would be more about her relationship with him, and I was at my last strength with this book. So I just decided to stop here, and I don’t regret it. I don’t downsize her career and her accomplishments just this book is more about what she achieved before this relationship and then during and after it. I may be wrong, as I didn’t finish the book, but it’s what I felt reading it.
Overall, the book is more about who she knows and about her romance than about how she lives and evolves in the land of men.
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