Portland Public Library

All the lives I want, essays about my best friends who happen to be famous strangers, Alana Massey

eng

Includes bibliographical references

no index present

non fiction

All the lives I want

bibliography

951711141

Alana Massey

essays about my best friends who happen to be famous strangers

"From columnist and critic Alana Massey, a collection of essays examining the intersection of the personal with pop culture through the lives of pivotal female figures--from Sylvia Plath to Britney Spears--in the spirit of Chuck Klosterman, with the heart of a true fan. Mixing Didion's affected cool with moments of giddy celebrity worship, Massey examines the lives of the women who reflect our greatest aspirations and darkest fears back onto us. These essays are personal without being confessional and clever in a way that invites readers into the joke. A cultural critique and a finely wrought fan letter, interwoven with stories that are achingly personal, All the lives I want is also an exploration of mental illness, the sex industry, and the dangers of loving too hard. But it is, above all, a paean to the celebrities who have shaped a generation of women--from Scarlett Johansson to Amber Rose, Lil' Kim, Anjelica Huston, Lana Del Rey, Anna Nicole Smith and many more. These reflections aim to reimagine these women's legacies, and in the process, teach us new ways of forgiving ourselves"--, Provided by publisher

Being Winona, freeing Gwyneth : on the limitations of our celebrity "type" -- Public figures : Britney's body is everybody's -- Run the world : Amber Rose in the Great Stripper Imaginary -- All the lives I want : recovering Sylvia -- Heavenly creatures : the Gospels according to Lana, Fiona, and Dolly -- There can be only one : on Lil's Kim, Nicki Minaj, and the art of manufactured beef -- The queen of hearts : an alternative account of the life and crimes of Courtney Love -- Our sisters shall inherit the sky : on the Lisbon sisters and the misnomer of "The Virgin Suicides" -- Broken-bodied girls : on the horror of little girls grown -- Charlotte in exile : a case for the liberation of Scarlett Johansson from "Lost in Translation" -- No she without her : on Mary-Kate and Ashley Olson and the Singularity -- American pain : the suffering-class spectacle of Anna Nicole Smith -- A bigger fairy tale : on Angelica Huston and the inheritance of glamour -- Long-game bitches : on Princess Di, Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes and the fine art of crazy exing -- Emparadised : on Joan Didion and personal mythology as survival