Why do so many people still love Friends? | Zoe Williams

The 90s were a decade of carefree optimism and comically low stakes. Matthew Perry’s death brings us crashing back into the now In 2004, the author Damian Barr published Get It Together: Surviving Your Quartlerlife Crisis. Barr would go on to write poignant and beautiful books (including the memoir Maggie and Me) but this wasn’t either of those things. It was more of a fun, generational howl: how’s this stuff supposed to work? How are you supposed to become an adult in these conditions? The dream of life in your 20s – flailing around not sure what to do, mooching from one dead-end job to another but still managing to afford a gigantic, lovely flat in the centre of everything, failing romantically, hilariously, while it all turns out for the best, never feeling anxious for no reason or as if you’re slipping through the sieve of polite society, too small and weightless to remain in the in-crowd – well, that dream was cracking a little. As Barr put it in a radio interview, the question, essentially, was this: what if Friends, which by then was in its 10th and final season, wasn’t very true to life?Definitely, the economic winds were changing: wages in the UK started to stagnate in 2003; in the US, graduate wages had been falling since 2000, and health cover cut for young employees, both graduate and not, since 2002. All of this, plus climbing student debt, was dwarfed by the 2007-2008 financial crash, after which everyone got much poorer, much faster. But the casual 90s... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'

[ The Guardian | 2023-10-30 18:37:24 UTC ]

Other news stories related to: "Why do so many people still love Friends? | Zoe Williams"


Book Review: ‘Dinner for Vampires,’ by Bethany Joy Lenz

The “One Tree Hill” actor has written a memoir of the decade she spent beholden to the Big House Family — and her escape. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2024-10-22 09:02:48 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Bob the Drag Queen has written the world’s first Harriet Tubman hip-hop novel.

Bob the Drag Queen has written a book, y’all. And this is not the standard tell-all memoir announcement now standard practice for the cross-over artist with a brand to build. Luckily for the world, the Drag Race winning superstar has written a novel. And one that looks to be, um, delightfully... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2024-10-18 17:27:10 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Book Deals: Week of October 21, 2024

Little, Brown lands a new novel from Women’s Prize for Fiction winner Naomi Alderman, FSG takes a memoir from World Wide Web inventor Tim Berners-Lee, and more. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2024-10-18 04:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Siri Hustvedt to write a book about her late husband Paul Auster

The American writer is 120 pages into a memoir about her relationship with the New York Trilogy author, entitled Ghost StoriesSiri Hustvedt has revealed that she is working on a memoir about her late husband, Paul Auster, author of the acclaimed New York Trilogy.The news was first reported in... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2024-10-17 14:41:02 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Zara Chowdhary on Coming of Age During Anti-Muslim Violence in India and the U.S.

Zara Chowdhary’s The Lucky Ones is a devastating, timely memoir about survival, reclamation and what it means to exist on the margins of society and within your own familial unit. Zara speaks to us, raw and unfiltered, about growing up as a young muslim girl in Ahmedabad, India, in the aftermath... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2024-10-17 11:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Pope Francis to publish Hope, the first memoir from a sitting pontiff

Due out in January, the book deals with ‘some of the crucial moments of his papacy and some of the most controversial questions of our present times’Pope Francis has written an autobiography, publisher Penguin Random House (PRH) has announced. Hope, which will be published globally in January... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2024-10-16 15:07:45 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Entertainment and lifestyle titan Barry Diller will have memoir out next spring

Barry Diller has a memoir coming out next spring, covering a life that could fill multiple volumes Continue reading at ABC News

[ ABC News | 2024-10-16 12:14:39 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Random House to Publish Memoir by Pope Francis

'Hope' will be published by Random House in the U.S., and simultaneously in more than 80 countries, on January 14, with Italian publisher Mondadori managing world rights. Random House is touting the book as "the first memoir written by a sitting pontiff." Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2024-10-16 04:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Overtly handmade and so very moving: Adam Elliot’s Memoir of A Snail is a stop motion triumph

The film, set in Australia, explores love, loss and life’s imperfections against some very recognisable backdrops. Continue reading at The Conversation

[ The Conversation | 2024-10-16 02:14:43 UTC ]
More news stories like this


One of Cinema’s Greatest Actors Is Also One of Its Weirdest. His Memoir Helped Me Understand Him.

How did the Al Pacino of the 1970s become the Al Pacino of today? His new book provides an answer. Continue reading at Slate

[ Slate | 2024-10-15 17:25:15 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Boris Johnson’s memoir sells more than 40,000 copies in first week on sale

Unleashed, which covers Johnson’s time as mayor of London, foreign secretary and prime minister, was the bestselling book of the weekBoris Johnson’s memoir, Unleashed, sold 42,528 copies in its opening week after being published on 10 October, making it the bestselling book of last week.This... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2024-10-15 14:27:52 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Review: Al Pacino memoir 'Sonny Boy' goes all in with swagger, sorrow and why he skipped the '73 Oscars

Al Pacino's book is an eccentric mix of self-reflection and career reframing as one of Hollywood's giants talks about his troubled youth and rise to fame. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2024-10-12 14:00:51 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Lit Hub Weekly: October 7 – October 11, 2024

A guide to Cormac McCarthy’s literary influences, from Beowulf to Foucault. | Lit Hub Criticism From barroom chats with Raymond Carver to the aperçus of Thomas Piketty, Douglas Unger explores class consciousness in American letters. | Lit Hub Memoir Steve Wasserman deconstructs the environmental... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2024-10-12 10:30:17 UTC ]
More news stories like this


This Week’s Bestsellers: October 14, 2024

Ina “The Barefoot Contessa” Garten has the #1 book in the country with the memoir ‘Be Ready When the Luck Happens.’ Plus BookTok fave Lynn Painter returns with a new YA novel, and actor and comedian Kate McKinnon makes her middle grade debut. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2024-10-11 04:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Melania Really Doesn’t Care

Her new memoir is a master class in how selective attention and empathy can insulate someone from the pains that trouble the rest of us. Continue reading at The Atlantic

[ The Atlantic | 2024-10-10 11:06:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Publishing’s ‘Super Thursday’ includes books by Boris Johnson, Stanley Tucci and Kate Mosse

A total of 1,900 titles are being published today, including a Rebus from Ian Rankin, memoir from Miranda Hart and children’s fiction by AF SteadmanBooks by Boris Johnson, Stanley Tucci and Miranda Hart are among those being published today, on this year’s “Super Thursday” – the day when more... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2024-10-10 07:01:36 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Lisa Marie Presley's Memoir Reveals Shocking Michael Jackson Sex Secret

"I think he had kissed Tatum O'Neal," she wrote in her newly published posthumous memoir. Continue reading at HuffPost

[ HuffPost | 2024-10-08 17:24:18 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Lit Hub Asks: 5 Authors, 7 Questions, No Wrong Answers

The Lit Hub Author Questionnaire is a monthly interview featuring seven questions for five authors with new books. This month we talk to: Charles Bock (I Will Do Better: A Father’s Memoir of Heartbreak, Parenting, and Love) Kay Chronister (The Bog Wife) Mike Fu (Masquerade) Kate Greathead (The... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2024-10-08 08:56:09 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Book Review: ‘Loot,’ by Adam Raz; ‘The Gates of Gaza,’ by Amir Tibon

An Oct. 7 survival memoir and a chronicle of theft in 1948 grapple with the history of a war-torn region. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2024-10-07 09:00:20 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Book Review: ‘Melania,’ by Melania Trump

Slim and full of obfuscations, her memoir touches on business ventures and raising her son, but barely grapples with the mysteries of her marriage. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2024-10-05 19:18:55 UTC ]
More news stories like this