Monsters

A Fan's Dilemma

By: Claire Dederer

Narrated by: Claire Dederer

A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK • NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A timely, passionate, provocative, blisteringly smart interrogation of how we make and experience art in the age of cancel culture, and of the link between genius and monstrosity. Can we love the work of controversial classic and contemporary artists but dislike the artist?

"A lively, personal exploration of how one might think about the art of those who do bad things" —Vanity Fair • "[Dederer] breaks new ground, making a complex cultural conversation feel brand new." —Ada Calhoun, author of Also a Poet

From the author of the New York Times best seller Poser and the acclaimed memoir Love and Trouble, Monsters is “part memoir, part treatise, and all treat” (The New York Times). This unflinching, deeply personal book expands on Claire Dederer’s instantly viral Paris Review essay, "What Do We Do with the Art of Monstrous Men?"

Can we love the work of artists such as Hemingway, Sylvia Plath, Miles Davis, Polanski, or Picasso? Should we? Dederer explores the audience's relationship with artists from Michael Jackson to Virginia Woolf, asking: How do we balance our undeniable sense of moral outrage with our equally undeniable love of the work? Is male monstrosity the same as female monstrosity? And if an artist is also a mother, does one identity inexorably, and fatally, interrupt the other? In a more troubling vein, she wonders if an artist needs to be a monster in order to create something great. Does genius deserve special dispensation? Does art have a mandate to depict the darker elements of the psyche? And what happens if the artist stares too long into the abyss?

Highly topical, morally wise, honest to the core, Monsters is certain to incite a conversation about whether and how we can separate artists from their art.

“Monsters leaves us with Dederer’s passionate commitment to the artists whose work most matters to her, and a framework to address these questions about the artists who matter most to us." —The Washington Post

A Best Book of the Year: The New York Times, NPR, The Washington Post, The New Yorker, Vulture, Elle, Esquire, Kirkus

Adresses my many questions

Great job narrating, even greater job critically thinking through this enormous problem. A many headed problem I haven’t been able to figure out. At least now I’ve thought through it in detail. Thank you to Jamie Ford for suggesting it.

"What do we do about the terrible people we love?"

It's a question near the end of this wonderful book of essays, and it's really what the entire book is attempting to answer—with no simple one provided.

I understand why some people are frustrated with the memoir + argument parts of the book, especially since it seems many others are looking for an "answer" or "solution" and Claire Dederer doesn't offer one. Well, except that she does, but it's not the one that people want since it implicates us all and says there is no easy answer. As she states in one of the final chapters, "under capitalism, monstrousness applies to everyone." Am I monstrous, are you? Yes. As she reiterates, this is really getting at "the problem of human love." A topic I'm intensely interested in and, I would argue, the majority of people are invested in pondering at some point, or all the time.

I listened to and read this book concurrently, and I enjoyed the process immensely in both formats. I liked having Claire narrate her work, and I liked going back and re-reading things so I could see the words on the page and reinforce the complicated analysis and narrative and then re-read again. This is a book that I will value for its writing, for its bravery, for its smartness, for its structure, for its simplicity and for its complexity for years to come. I've already discussed it in an essay writing class I taught this summer at the New School's creative writing program. And I've already recommended to many people who are grappling with this question, this problem, this reality and need to have others for support.

Brilliant and relatable

Cuts through the nonsense and helped me as an artist feel braver about the selfishness. Required to make art

You lost me with the mothers

I'm not sure who she's talking about but the monsters in the beginning were very different from the monsters in the end. Are you a monster because you send your kids to daycare? I don't think so. Are you a monster because you have a job? Better than no home, food, clothes, and all the other things available with an income.

Interesting Topic, Too Many Sidetracks

I like the parts of the book that stuck with the premise "Can we love the art of people who did bad things?" It starts out well discussing this, but then side tracks into a lot of the author's own memoir, so I felt a little cheated... interesting personal insight but that should be another book. The conclusion seemed to be that we are all monsters so there is no conclusion. Even the narrator (who is the author) seemed to be tired and depressed near the end.