Men: Notes from an Ongoing Investigation

“Acerbic, wildly entertaining . . . Kipnis's combination of breeziness and erudition makes her unusual and unusually valuable.”—The Washington Post

“The patriarchal world, through Kipnis's eyes, is consistently and quietly funny . . . Her coolheaded, ironical assessments of modern masculinity read like perfectly timed eye rolls.”—The New York Times Book Review

“These are times to try the weary feminist reader's patience, when the conversation seems dominated by absolutist twenty-three-year-olds still burning off the righteous indignation of their first women's studies courses. It's a cultural moment that begs for a worldly, ambiguity-friendly thinker like Laura Kipnis . . . She is a swashbuckling stylist, with a knack for nailing the essence of a remark by means of a canny metaphor . . . Humor and a kind of rueful empathy for human folly, not outrage, tends to be her go-to response.”—Laura Miller, Salon

“There is much fun to be had in experiencing the way that Kipnis follows her topics into unexpected territory, which is not unrelated to her charming inability to be the kind of easily outraged critic the world often seems to want . . . [An] insightful, intelligent, and frequently hilarious collection.”—Bookforum

“A smart collection of weird, funny, and devotedly iconoclastic essays.”—Chicago Sun-Times

“Kipnis's gifts are on full display in this irresistible collection of essays, in which she weaves together complex and penetrating insights about gender into provocative treatises . . . Kipnis's arguments are never predictable: for example, her chapter on ‘juicers,' ostensibly about steroid-abusing male athletes, evolves into a profound soliloquy about writing, plagiarism, and labor markets. Her examination of modern manhood sheds as much light on male vulnerability as it does on male privilege, entitlement, and abuse . . . Kipnis has given us a necessary, and often witty, book that shows a brilliant, agile mind at work.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Feisty, unapologetic forays into the messiness of gender relations . . . rendered in funny, spirited writing.”—Kirkus Reviews