Overview

To be American is to hoard, to collect. But what if that wasn't a bad thing? Emily Mester's American Bulk asks readers to see our national consumer obsession as more than a modern scourge-to consider consumption a complex character in a larger story of capitalism, imperialism, and technology. In sharply witty prose, Mester details how a seasonal stint at Ulta Beauty reveals the insidious performance of retail sales, how Yelp reviews highlight the lengths we go to curate our personal ephemera, and why we can't help but find joy at Costco. In a stark reexamination of diet culture and fatness, Mester recounts her teenage summer at fat camp and the liberatory body neutrality that surrounded her. And in Storm Lake, Iowa, Mester excavates her grandmother's abandoned hoard, among other discoveries about her own family's history. American Bulk asks us to regard consumption not with guilt but with grace and empathy.

Full Product Details

9781324035237

Table of Contents

Reviews

A funny, incisive, humane dispatch from a brilliant new voice in nonfiction. American Bulk had me cringing, laughing, and yes, even tearing up as it drew the contours of my own, and our national, appetites. I remain amazed that a book so clear-eyed in its scrutiny of our capitalistic perversity left me with so much hope.--Melissa Febos, author of Girlhood, winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award in Criticism

Inquisitive and deeply observed....In a late-stage capitalism heaving with choice, Mester assumes the role of a millennial Virgil with both style and grace....Mester forges a compassionate route through brand-name overabundance to better understand the impulse to consume.-- ""Shelf-Awareness"" Paints a vivid portrait of American consumerism....A thought-provoking view of our relationship with consumption and excess.-- ""Kirkus Reviews"" American Bulk is composed of some of my favorite nonfiction essays on family, capital, love and dysfunction that I've ever read. It's a refreshing and needed reframing of what all these things mean, today, right now, as the neon haze of fast-food signs flicker from their long-time dominion of the American experience. Mester examines our compulsion to consume with careful incisions that I kept highlighting and coming back to, just to whisper the words to myself to make their clear-eyed cleverness my own.--Arabelle Sicardi, beauty writer and author of the forthcoming The House of Beauty With compassion, wit, and piercing honesty, Emily Mester delves into our love of consumerism--and what our desires say about who we want to become. Bravely personal, incisively critical, American Bulk is a report on our national psyche and a captivating family story.--Larissa Pham, author of National Book Critics Circle John Leonard finalist Pop Song A funny, incisive, humane dispatch from a brilliant new voice in nonfiction. American Bulk had me cringing, laughing, and yes, even tearing up as it drew the contours of my own, and our national, appetites. I remain amazed that a book so clear-eyed in its scrutiny of our capitalistic perversity left me with so much hope.--Melissa Febos, author of Girlhood, winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award in Criticism

Author Information

Emily Mester is a writer from the suburban Midwest, where her family went to Costco every Sunday. She holds an MFA in nonfiction from the University of Iowa, where she was the winner of the Prairie Lights Nonfiction Prize. She lives in New York.

Tab Content 6

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

Countries Available