A Field Guide to Awkward Silences
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4.6 • 8 Ratings
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- $13.99
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
Washington Post columnist Alexandra Petri turns her satirical eye on her own life in this hilarious new memoir...
Most twentysomethings spend a lot of time avoiding awkwardness.
Not Alexandra Petri.
Afraid of rejection? Alexandra Petri has auditioned for America’s Next Top Model. Afraid of looking like an idiot? Alexandra Petri lost Jeopardy! by answering “Who is that dude?” on national TV. Afraid of bad jokes? Alexandra Petri won an international pun championship.
Petri has been a debutante, reenacted the Civil War, and fended off suitors at a Star Wars convention while wearing a Jabba the Hutt suit. One time, she let some cult members she met on the street baptize her, just to be polite. She’s a connoisseur of the kind of awkwardness that most people spend whole lifetimes trying to avoid. If John Hodgman and Amy Sedaris had a baby…they would never let Petri babysit it.
But Petri is here to tell you: Everything you fear is not so bad. Trust her. She’s tried it. And in the course of her misadventures, she’s learned that there are worse things out there than awkwardness—and that interesting things start to happen when you stop caring what people think.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Washington Post columnist Petri plumbs the depth of her own awkwardness in this hilarious collection of essays reliving incidents like attending the Fortieth Annual International Whistling Convention, competing in the O. Henry Pun-Off, and speed dating at a Star Wars convention. Petri confesses to a teen infatuation with Robert E. Lee, complete with fan fiction, and the rare ability to "summon elderly men from great distances." There are Oscar Wildean bon mots, like the perfectly absurd statement that "Every friend group has a Karen, and if you don't know instantly who it is, it's you." Petri's humor is complemented by her capacity for articulating insights. An appearance on Jeopardy sparks a lament on the decline of trivia in the digital age, and a debutante ball dispels a wistful nostalgia for the past with the sad realization that "No one notices living in a golden age." Funny, smart, and indeed supremely awkward, Petri's literary debut is everything her fans might expect and more.
