One of Vogue's 22 Best Books to Read This Winter“The memoir I've been waiting for: a bold, incisive, and illuminating story of a woman whose devotion to language and literature comes at a hideous cost. It's Joanna Rakoff's My Salinger Year updated for the age of She Said: a literary New York now long past; an intimate, fiercely realist portrait of a mythic literary figure; and now, a tender reckoning with possession, power, and what Jia Tolentino called the ‘Important, Inappropriate Literary Man.' A poised and superbly perceptive narration of the problems of working with men, and of loving them.” - Eleanor Henderson, author of 10,000 SaintsA fiercely personal memoir about Miller's coming of age in the male-dominated literary world of the nineties, becoming, at twenty-five, the first female literary editor of Esquire, and her personal and working relationship with David Foster WallaceAdrienne Miller was a naïve twenty-two-year-old from the Midwest when she got a lucky break and was hired as an editorial assistant at GQ. The mid-nineties was still the golden age of print journalism, and a publication like GQ then seemed the red-hot center of the literary world, even if its sensibilities were manifestly mid-century-the martinis, the male egos, and the unquestioned authority of kings. Still, Miller learned to hold her own in a man's world, and three years later, she forged her own path, becoming the first woman to hold the role of literary editor of Esquire.She was at Esquire during a unique moment in history that simultaneously saw the last days of the old guard of literary titans and the rise of a new movement, as exemplified by McSweeney's and by David Foster Wallace. Through Miller's work as his editor at the magazine, Wallace would become her closest friend, confidant-and antagonist. Here is the untold story of an intellectual and artistic exchange that grew into a highly charged relationship between a young woman finding her voice and one of the most prominent writers of the era. This is a candid portrait of the mercurial man behind the spotlight, and an account of the shrouded literary world, which asks the question: How does a young woman fit into this culture and at what cost With wit and deep intelligence, Miller presents a moving portrayal of a young woman's education in a land of men.
