Too Much and Not the Mood: Essays [Paperback]

Named a best book of 2017 by NPR,The Guardian,Slate,NYLONandThe Globe and Mail(Canada)

From Durga Chew-Bose, one of our most gifted, insightful essayists and critics (Nylon), comes a warmly considered meld of criticism and memoir (New Yorker), a lyrical and piercingly insightful debut collection of essays about identity and culture.

Too Much and Not the Mood is a beautiful and surprising exploration of what it means to be a first-generation, creative young woman working today. On April 11, 1931, Virginia Woolf ended her entry in A Writers Diary with the words too much and not the mood to describe her frustration with placating her readers, what she described as the cramming in and the cutting out. She wondered if she had anything at all that was truly worth saying.

The attitude of that sentiment inspired Durga Chew-Bose to gather own writing in this lyrical collection of poetic essays that examine personhood and artistic growth. Drawing inspiration from a diverse group of incisive and inquiring female authors, Chew-Bose captures the inner restlessness that keeps her always on the brink of creative expression.

A warmly considered meld of criticism and memoir, a self-portrait of the writer as intrepid mental wanderer. [Chew-Bose's] enthusiasms for art, literature, movies, friendship, and family life are as broad as they are deeply felt. This is a book to slip into your pocket for company during a day of solitary walking. Alexandra Schwartz,New Yorker

If you admire Maggie Nelsons ability to combine the personal and the academic into a thrilling new art form, Durga Chew-Bose will be your next favorite writer. Her remarkable debut essay collection touches on art and literature and pop culture, but also feels intensely intimate, filled with stunning insights both large in scale, and small. Maris Kreizman,Vulture

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