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More copies of this ISBNeBook editionsThe Man in the Gray Flannel Skirtby Jon-Jon Goulian
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"Back in 1976, a 7-year-old boy named Jon-Jon Goulian wrote himself a postcard. He gave his postman strict instructions to arrange for the letter to be delivered 30 years later, to his grandfather's summer home in Vermont. As it happens, grownup Jon-Jon was in Vermont the day his directive was carried out, and received a message from his pint-sized self. Synopses & ReviewsPublisher Comments:If you have ever felt like a misfit in school or been paralyzed by your family's imposing expectations, if you have ever obsessed about your appearance or panicked about choosing a career path, if you have ever wondered if every single thing to which your body is exposed, from egg yolks to X-rays, might harm you, then you may be surprised to find a kindred spirit in The Man in the Gray Flannel Skirt. Growing up in sunny La Jolla, California, Jon-Jon Goulian was a hyperneurotic kid who felt out of place wherever he turned, and who, in his own words, was forever on the verge of "caving in beneath the pressures of modern life." From his fear of competition to his fear of pimples, from his fear of sex to his fear of saturated fat, the range and depth of Jon-Jon's phobias were seemingly boundless. With his two older brothers providing a sterling example he believed he could never live up to, and his stern grandfather, the political philosopher Sidney Hook, continually calling him to account for his intellectual failure, Jon-Jon, feeling pressed against the wall, wracked with despair, and dizzy with insecurity, instinctively resorted, for reasons that became clear to him only many years later, to a most ingenious scheme for keeping conventional expectations at bay: women's clothing! Ingenious, perhaps, but woefully ineffective, as Jon-Jon discovers, again and again, that behind his skirt, leggings, halter top, and high heels, he's still as wildly neurotic, and as wracked with anxiety, as he's always been. In this hilarious and heartfelt memoir, Jon-Jon Goulian's witty and exuberant voice shines through, as he comes to terms with what it means to truly be yourself. Review:"A man wears women's clothes, rejects a legal career, and otherwise baffles his parents in this flamboyant but callow memoir. Goulian, a former secretary at the New York Review of Books, has a Columbia B.A., an unused law degree, and a proud history of menial jobs and underachievement: 'I own nothing, save nothing, accomplish nothing tangible and have no permanent hold on life.' Goulian relates body-image issues (he had his first nose job at age 15), a militant refusal to grow up (at age 29 he was collecting stuffed animals and calling his long-suffering father 'Dada'), or his gruesomely detailed sexual anxieties. Much of the book consists of Goulian fencing with relatives — including his choleric grandfather, the neoconservative philosopher Sidney Hook — as they nag him to do something with his life, but his defiance of bourgeois propriety and ambition comes off as defensive narcissism. Through all his flashy attempts to grab the reader's attention, Goulian's story never seems interesting or serious enough to deserve it. Photos. (May 17)" Publishers Weekly (Copyright PWyxz LLC) Review:“For anyone who's ever felt like no one in a world that demands we all be someone, here it is: the psychedelically neurotic account, painfully brave and punishingly funny, of one human being's long struggle to make his outsides match his unclassifiable insides. Reading it is like spying on Goulian's soul — a dirty little privilege.” Walter Kirn, author of Up in the Air and Lost in the Meritocracy Review:"You can't read this book without falling a little bit in love with Jon-Jon Goulian. Suddenly, at the age of 40, after not having published a word his whole life, he gives us one of the funniest, saddest, and most exquisitely crafted books about a dysfunctional neurotic ever written. Alexander Portnoy meets Ignatius O'Reilly comes to mind, but skinnier, weirder, prettier, smarter, and more compassionate. And real." Katie Roiphe, author of Uncommon Arrangements Review:"Jon-Jon Goulian's journey from strange young man to strange older man is tender, sweet and very readable. One wishes him and his koala bear hand puppet, Mr. Marvel, a life of love and happiness." Gary Shteyngart, author of Super Sad True Love Story Review:"Jon-Jon Goulian manages to pull off the hardest thing to do when writing about yourself, which is being totally candid yet also compassionate. It's hard to imagine anyone not loving this book, but everyone who's ever felt like a freak will find it especially cheering, affirming, heartrending and hilarious." Emily Gould, author of And the Heart Says Whatever Review:"Some people have to dare to be original, but Jon-Jon Goulian would have to try hard to be normal. As the lawyer he is might say: he is sui generis. Read this book, and live a little." Elizabeth Wurtzel, author of Prozac Nation Synopsis:The vibrant, funny, and heartwarming story of an outcast who becomes an odd man in. About the AuthorJon-Jon Goulian was born in 1968 and grew up in La Jolla, California. After attending Columbia College and NYU Law School, he worked as a law clerk for a federal judge in North Carolina, and then as an assistant to Robert Silvers of the New York Review of Books. He now lives, by himself, in South Wardsboro, Vermont, where he spends most of his time gardening. The Man in the Gray Flannel Skirt is his first book. What Our Readers Are SayingBe the first to add a comment for a chance to win!Product Details
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