{"product_id":"bloodied-nightgown-and-other-essays","title":"Bloodied Nightgown and Other Essays","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA collection of the \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eNew Yorker\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003ecritic's finest essays, which\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cb\u003eexamine the books that reveal and record our world.\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eJoan Acocella was one of our finest cultural critics (Edward Hirsch), and she had the rare ability to examine literature and unearth the lives contained within it--its authors, its subjects, and the communities from which it springs. In her hands, arts criticism was a celebration and an investigation, and her essays pulse with unadulterated enthusiasm. As Kathryn Harrison wrote in \u003ci\u003eThe New York Times Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e, Hers is a vision that allows art its mystery but not its pretensions, to which she is acutely sensitive. What better instincts could a critic have? \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Bloodied Nightgown and Other Essays\u003c\/i\u003e gathers twenty-four essays from the final decade and a half of Acocella's career, as well as an introduction that frames her simple preoccupations: life and art. In agile, inspired prose, she moves from J. R. R. Tolkien's translation of \u003ci\u003eBeowulf\u003c\/i\u003e to the life of Richard Pryor, from surveying profanity to untangling the book of Job. Her appetite (and reading list) knew no bounds. This collection is a joy and a revelation, a library in itself, and Acocella is our dream companion among its shelves. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003eIncludes 25 black-and-white images\u003c\/b\u003e","brand":"Phoenix Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46609452761257,"sku":"PHBK-9781250338075","price":20.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0578\/9899\/1785\/files\/content_f18aa2b0-2ee6-4d5c-92b4-48aa9cf4dabc.jpg?v=1764701596","url":"https:\/\/myti.com\/products\/bloodied-nightgown-and-other-essays","provider":"Myti","version":"1.0","type":"link"}