And the Heart Says Whatever

Essays by former editor of Gawker.com — and the new female voice of her generation.

In And the Heart Says Whatever, Emily Gould tells the truth about becoming an adult in New York City in the first decade of the 21st century, alongside bartenders, bounty hunters, bloggers, bohemians, socialites, and bankers. These are essays about failing at pet parenthood, suspending lust during the long moment in which a dude selects the perfect soundtrack from his iTunes library, and leaving one life behind to begin a new one (but still taking the G train back to visit the old one sometimes).

For everyone who has ever had a job she wishes she didn't, felt inchoate ambition sour into resentment, ended a relationship, regretted a decision, or told a secret to exactly the wrong person, these stories will be achingly familiar. At once a road map of what not to do and a document of what's possible, this book heralds the arrival of a writer who decodes the new challenges of our post-private lives, and the age-old intricacies of the human heart.

"On the strength of an expos she wrote for the New York Times Magazine two years ago about her experience working at Gawker.com, Gould, hailing from Silver Spring, Md., and now in her late 20s, delivers a series of 11 insipid essays about her uninspired youth and general lack of motivation or talent for various jobs she took after moving to New York City. The writing seems intentionally bland, as if Gould is attempting to be blas. At age 17, as she describes in 'Flower,' she and her suburban friends listened to Liz Phair because the singer 'gave us permission to do stupid things and consider them adventures'; in Gould's case, she 'deflowered' a 14-year-old boy from the swim team, knowing her boyfriend would hear about it. She doesn't get into 'the artsiest Ivy' as per plan ('I was neither smart nor exceptional'), but attends her 'safe' (unvisited) choice, Kenyon, from which she drops out and moves to New York. Among other gigs, she works as a waitress for a sad-sack music bar and as a receptionist for a large, commercial publishing house ('I felt silly for being shocked by the quality of what made it through'). At Gawker, she became practiced at 'scanning a room or a page and isolating the appropriate things to hate.' Desultory anecdotes of breakup and dating ensue, leaving the reader more confounded than moved." Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

"Gould turns a sharp eye on her own life....The perceptiveness...that...made her so controversial [carries] the book." Booklist

"And the Heart Says Whatever confirms what fans of Emily Gould's previous writing already knew — that she's massively talented, just as good at devastating us with an emotional truth as she is at amusing us with a clever joke. These smart, poignant essays about being young and literary in New York City are like a twenty-first century version of The Bell Jar but with more pot, sex, technology, and (thank goodness) a different ending." Curtis Sittenfeld, author of Prep and American Wife

"This is not a 'nice' book, but it comes by its anger and melancholy honestly, and it makes sense of much that is puzzling about our cultural moment." Jonathan Franzen, bestselling author of The Corrections

"In this limpid, poetic elegy to the New York of her twenties, Emily Gould proves a sharp and feeling observer of her generation. Honest, gorgeously rendered, and occasionally brutal, And the Heart Says Whatever is a testament to the pleasures and pains of heightened self-awareness." Amy Sohn, author of Prospect Park West

These essays are written by media darling, and former editor of Gawker.com, Gould — the smart, young, and hip new female voice of her generation.