{"product_id":"dear-monica-lewinsky","title":"Dear Monica Lewinsky","description":"\n\u003ctable align=\"center\" border=\"0\" cellpadding=\"2\" cellspacing=\"0\" width=\"100%\"\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd class=\"productDetailSmallElements\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eBiographical Note\u003c\/strong\u003e:\u003cbr\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tJULIA LANGBEIN holds a doctorate in art history and is the author of the novel \n\u003ci\u003eAmerican Mermaid \u003c\/i\u003eas well as a nonfiction book about comic art criticism. She has written about food, art, and travel for \n\u003ci\u003eBon Appétit, Gourmet\u003c\/i\u003e, Eater, \n\u003ci\u003eSalon\u003c\/i\u003e, \n\u003ci\u003eFrieze, \u003c\/i\u003e and other publications, and received a 2024 James Beard Foundation Journalism Award. A native of Chicago, she lives outside of Paris with her family.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eReview Quotes\u003c\/strong\u003e:\u003cbr\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Laugh-out-loud prose, richly drawn characters and painfully real renderings of the fumbling social world of young adulthood . . . As full of whimsy as it is of heartbreak.\" \n\u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003e--\u003ci\u003eThe New York Times \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"Smart, poignant, and involving . . . Langbein excels at depicting the obsessive nature of illicit, unfulfilled desire -- how it swamps judgement and just about everything else. . . . Though framed by a fantastical conceit, \n\u003ci\u003eDear Monica Lewinsky\u003c\/i\u003e is at its core a realist novel, influenced by the feminism of #MeToo and precise in its delineation of character and place.\" \n\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cbr\u003e--Los Angeles Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"Insightful [and] hilarious . . . This is the only novel of the hundreds I have read where I reread the ending three times: It was that satisfying.\" \n\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cb\u003e--Melissa Gray, NPR\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\" \n\u003ci\u003eDear Monica Lewinsky\u003c\/i\u003e is a fascinating novel about the past, reckoning with the most elusive and unknown element: the person you once were and still somehow continue to be. It's incredible that Julia Langbein navigates this territory with such humor, as this is a truly funny book, but also manages to show tenderness without losing that essential bite of pain.\" \n\u003cbr\u003e-- \n\u003cb\u003eKevin Wilson, bestselling author of \u003ci\u003eNothing to See Here\u003c\/i\u003e \u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"What a wild, wonderful essential novel this is. Julia Langbein has the uncanny ability to make a reader laugh out loud again and again while also laying bare -- in her brilliant, singular way -- the specific travail of being a young woman.\" \n\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cb\u003e--Claire Lombardo, bestselling author of \u003ci\u003eThe Most Fun We Ever Had\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eSame As It Ever Was \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \"An original, tender, and outrageously funny novel about hunger, desire, and the vulnerable (sometimes shameful) moments that make us, \n\u003ci\u003eDear Monica Lewinsky\u003c\/i\u003e is a miracle. With incomparable tact and warmth, Julia Langbein achieves the impossible: balancing humor, consequence, and an irresistible ensemble of personalities against the glittering backdrop of a French summer. Comic novels with heft are the rarest stars in the literary firmament, and this one burns as brightly as the sun.\" \n\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cb\u003e--Katy Hays, \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e bestselling author of \u003ci\u003eSaltwater\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"Hilarious, poignant, and exquisitely written, \n\u003ci\u003eDear Monica Lewinsky\u003c\/i\u003e is a wholly original feminist ode. Langbein balances academic satire and emotional excavation, all with her signature wink. I'm obsessed with her mind.\" \n\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cb\u003e--Emily Habeck, author of \u003ci\u003eShark Heart \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"Incandescent . . . Langbein packs the fierce and funny tale with weighty insights into female desire, ambition, and selfhood, making it a winning combination of comedy, critique, and fantasy. She also fully delivers on the audacious conceit. . . . [ \n\u003ci\u003eDear Monica Lewinsky\u003c\/i\u003e] is a revelation.\" \n\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cb\u003e--\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e (starred review)\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"[A] complex comic confection . . . Its bold, clever comedic lineaments [support] a serious and poignant examination of female desire and male power.\" \n\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cb\u003e--\u003ci\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003c\/i\u003e (starred review)\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"Inventive, funny and incisive--a delightful comedy that's also frank in commenting on the trouble caused by institutional power imbalances between men and women.\" \n\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cb\u003e--\u003ci\u003eBookPage \u003c\/i\u003e(starred review)\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"A sharp-eyed, potent examination of sex and power dynamics between young women and older men.\" \n\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cb\u003e--\u003ci\u003eBooklist \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"Langbein's prose is a sharp, witty meditation on female longing and male authority.\" \n\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e--\u003ci\u003eOprah Daily \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"Truly hilarious . . . This book really speaks to me as a woman who came of age in the 1990s and thought I was a feminist. . . . I highly recommend this novel.\" \n\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cbr\u003e--\u003c\/i\u003eMaris Kreizman, \u003ci\u003eThe Maris Review \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"Bold, weird, and brilliant . . . It's funny, yes, but it's also serious about female desire and male power. . . . The invention here is so confident, and the payoff feels strangely mythic, like it turns private pain into something larger and clarifying.\" \n\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cb\u003e--BiblioLifestyle\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003e\" \n\u003ci\u003eDear Monica Lewinsky\u003c\/i\u003e is full of vivid descriptions. . . . This novel shows the huge difference in pre- and post-#MeToo understandings of sexual dynamics, but it also deftly portrays the gulf between late adolescence and middle age.\" \n\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cb\u003e--\u003ci\u003eBookBrowse\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003e\"A witty and emotional exploration of young womanhood . . . This incisively funny academic satire is nuanced and thought provoking.\" \n\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cb\u003e--\u003ci\u003eShelf Awareness\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"Langbein's prose in \n\u003ci\u003eDear Monica Lewinsky\u003c\/i\u003e is eloquent; reading this novel is like opening a gift and wanting more.\" \n\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cb\u003e--\u003ci\u003eBookTrib\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003ci\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\" \n\u003ci\u003eDear Monica Lewinsky\u003c\/i\u003e is part comedy, part fairy tale, part historical reckoning -- a clever and creative work that will have you rethinking much of what you have come to believe.\" \n\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cb\u003e--KMUW \u003ci\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublisher Marketing\u003c\/strong\u003e:\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cb\u003eFrom the acclaimed author of \u003ci\u003eAmerican Mermaid\u003c\/i\u003e (\"Sublime\"--NYTBR) comes a wise, funny, and wildly original examination of female desire and the price women pay for giving in to their appetites. \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eA \u003ci\u003eLIT HUB \u003c\/i\u003eMOST ANTICIPATED BOOK OF THE YEAR \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"A wild, wonderful essential novel.\" --Claire Lombardo, author of \u003ci\u003eThe Most Fun We Ever Had\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"Truly funny.\"--Kevin Wilson, author of \u003ci\u003eNothing to See Here\u003c\/i\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eForty-year-old Jean Dornan cannot escape the summer of 1998, when, as a college student studying abroad in France, she embarked on an inappropriate relationship with her professor. Now, decades later, when that professor contacts her out of the blue with an invitation to his retirement ceremony, Jean's long-standing malaise becomes an emotional crisis. Desperate to understand why this relationship derailed her life so completely, she begins rereading her old diaries and is shocked to realize that her own disastrous affair occurred during the summer of the Lewinsky scandal, yet she never saw the parallels. \n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn a frenzy of guilt and regret, Jean finds herself \n\u003ci\u003epraying \u003c\/i\u003eto Monica Lewinsky for forgiveness as if she were a secular saint, a figure of both suffering and sympathy. To Jean's shock, Saint Monica appears--powerful, radiant, wise, and witty--and guides Jean like the Ghost of Christmas Past back to the summer of 1998. Had Jean merely been naive and stupid, as she has told herself for so long? Was it sheer weakness that led her into the affair? Or will Jean, with Saint Monica by her side, see past blame to the beauty of her younger self's search for pleasure, connection, and transcendence? \n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eTold in flashbacks of those sunlit six weeks in France, replete with Saint Monica's flinty, fiery insights and interspersed with retellings of the lives of real historical martyrs, \n\u003ci\u003eDear Monica Lewinsky\u003c\/i\u003e is a tender, hilarious, and wholly original examination of desire and its costs, of appetite and its denial, and of certain defeat and surprise renewal. It asks what grace and forgiveness might look like both in our own individual lives and as a society.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eReview Citations:\u003c\/strong\u003e\n\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cspan class=\"italic\"\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003c\/span\u003e 01\/15\/2026 (EAN 9780385551502, Hardcover) - *Starred Review\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cspan class=\"italic\"\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/span\u003e 02\/09\/2026 (EAN 9780385551502, Hardcover) - *Starred Review\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cspan class=\"italic\"\u003eBooklist\u003c\/span\u003e 03\/01\/2026 (EAN 9780385551502, Hardcover)\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cspan class=\"italic\"\u003eShelf Awareness\u003c\/span\u003e 12\/30\/0001 (EAN 9780385551502, Hardcover)\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\n\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003c\/table\u003e\n","brand":"Doubleday Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51496182448406,"sku":"9780385551502","price":36.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0857\/9910\/8886\/files\/9780385551502.jpg?v=1783056881","url":"https:\/\/lusper.myshopify.com\/products\/dear-monica-lewinsky","provider":"Lusperbooks","version":"1.0","type":"link"}