Overview

Part cultural analysis, part backstage tour, Love in the Afternoon, and Evening is a love letter to a misunderstood, often-dismissed American genre. Critics, friends, and soap obsessives Charlotte Druckman and Mayukh Sen invite readers into a conversation that ranges from topics both serious (race, reproductive rights, queerness) and fun (fashion! long-lost daughters! evil twins!). Like any great soap, they structure their essays for surprise and emotional payoff, including interviews with divas Susan Lucci (All My Children) and Erika Slezak (One Life to Live), an exploration of the greatest soap satire ever made, deeper cuts like a Who's Who of the best-of-the-best actors on Falcon Crest, and much more. Together, these thoughtful essays get to the bottom of what makes a soap, tracing a throughline to reality TV and the shows that continue to hook us day and night with drama and emotion. Love in the Afternoon, and Evening will make you want to bust out your shoulder pads and binge your favorite show all over again.

Full Product Details

9781324075561

Table of Contents

Reviews

It's about time there was a book that gives credit to soaps for shaping so much of our entertainment culture and does justice to all the work that's gone into them. And to the people who have done that work! What a thrill it is to see that celebrated.--Lisa Rinna Charlotte Druckman and Mayukh Sen make a compelling case for what soap fans have always known: This genre built the foundation for modern serialized storytelling. Love in the Afternoon, and Evening triumphantly explores the clever plot twists, groundbreaking social commentary, and backstage drama that made soaps daily appointment television. This is essential reading that celebrates one of our most beloved genres.--Regina Black, USA Today best-selling author of August Lane

Author Information

Charlotte Druckman is an award-winning writer, author of Skirt Steak, and creator of the collection Women on Food. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and New York Magazine, among others. She lives in New York, where she was born and raised. Mayukh Sen is the author of Love, Queenie—a finalist for the 2025 National Book Critics Circle Award for Biography—and Taste Makers. He is a 2026 United States Artists Fellow and teaches film and television reporting and criticism at New York University. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.

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