Synopses & Reviews
A TRUE STORY OF OBSESSIVE LOVE TURNING TO OBSESSIVE HATE IN THE CRUCIBLE OF THE DIGITAL AGE
Give Me Everything You Have chronicles author James Lasduns strange and harrowing ordeal at the hands of a former student, a self-styled “verbal terrorist,” who began trying, in her words, to “ruin him.” Hate mail, online postings, and public accusations of plagiarism and sexual misconduct were her weapons of choice and, as with more conventional terrorist weapons, proved remarkably difficult to combat. James Lasduns account, while terrifying, is told with compassion and humor, and brilliantly succeeds in turning a highly personal story into a profound meditation on subjects as varied as madness, race, Middle East politics, and the meaning of honor and reputation in the Internet age.
Review
“Smart, rigorous, and beautifully written.”—
The New York Times“A fierce and compelling memoir.”—Maureen Corrigan, NPRs Fresh Air
“This must be the most informative, the most insightful, and the most beautifully written of any account from the victims perspective of what has come to be called cyberbullying.”—Joyce Carol Oates
“One of those books that made me grateful for subway delays, so much did I want the excuse to keep reading it....A rigorous and moving and very elegantly wrought examination of obsession, relentlessness, power, envy, and ambition.”—Rebecca Mead, NewYorker.coms Page-Turner
“Fascinating and eminently readable...An astute meditation on anti-Semitism, online harassment, the nature of obsession, and the power of the written word....[Lasduns] measured narrative has the suspense of a psychological thriller.”—The Economist
About the Author
James Lasdun was born in London and now lives in upstate New York. He has published two novels, including It's Beginning to Hurt, as well as several collections of short stories and poetry. He has been longlisted for the Man Booker Prize and shortlisted for the Los Angeles Times, T. S. Eliot, and Forward prizes in poetry, and he was the winner of the inaugural BBC National Short Story Award. His nonfiction has been published in Harpers Magazine, Granta, and the London Review of Books.