Read this when
Monsters: A Fan's Dilemma
Loving the art of someone who did harm doesn't make you a monster. It makes you a fan with a conscience. 🎬
Who it's for
If you feel uneasy, guilty or defensive about still loving work by someone who caused harm, this book takes that feeling seriously instead of handing you a rule.
Feelings it meets
What it is
Grown out of her Paris Review essay "What Do We Do with the Art of Monstrous Men?", Dederer's book asks what happens when you love a film, novel or album and then learn what its maker did. Mixing memoir and criticism, she works through Polanski, Woody Allen, Picasso, Hemingway, Nabokov, Michael Jackson and others, and turns the question back on herself and on the ambitions of women artists.
Where to find it
Hardcover, paperback, ebook and audiobook from major booksellers; widely held in libraries.
Before you start
Heads up: Discussion of sexual abuse allegations.
Age: Not rated (adult nonfiction; suggested 16+)
