Good Books!

Trick Mirror, by Jia Tolentino

Reflections on Self-Delusion.

So, I’ve been away from my book review desk for a spell but am returning to comment on a doozy of a read…at least in the sense of trying to condense a sprawling, intense collection of essays by Jia Tolentino titled, Trick Mirror: Reflections on Self-Delusion. The book was a gift from friends/tormentors who know that my relationship with technology is fraught with tension (I only started using a smartphone [reluctantly] mid- 2017 and my nonexistent social online presence [no Facebook, Twitter, etc.]). Not surprisingly, it was a little struggle to finish the first chapter of the book, titled, “The I in Internet.” Tolentino, a staff writer for the New Yorker and Jezabel, has a large media presence and Trick Mirror can be described as “Cliff Notes” on existing in the 21st century. Her recounting of a childhood growing up in an Evangelical Christian community in Houston in the early aughts may be uniquely specific enough but her recollections of learning to navigate the bourgeoning digital world is an experience I’m sure millions of millennials can relate to. Suddenly, I started to understand that part of my daughter’s growing up experience (who coincidentally is the exact same age as the author and like Tolentino, served in the Peace Corps) with which I had so little in common. The anonymity offered online has created a new (or dual) reality…emboldening bullying and hate-mongering, celebrating “likes” and “followers” more than actual achievements and explaining the book’s title by arguing that, “…Where we had once been free to be ourselves online, we are now chained to ourselves online.” Subsequent chapters deal with feminism and the current “Me Too” movement, navigating today’s cultural fads (althleisure wear, avocado toast, etc.), even the current explosion of women in the national political arena. My favorite is an entire essay devoted to female protagonists in literature where Tolentino points to the common arc of the precocious, adventurous girl (Harriet The Spy, Hermione Jean Granger [Harry Potter series]) to the troubled teen (Go Ask Alice, Bella Swan [Twilight series]) to depressed and depleted women [too many to list]).

This is not a quick or light read. Tolentino is a thoughtful, insightful writer who has created a compelling archive of experience of living today through the eyes of a millennial.