Non­fic­tion

Look Alive Out There

  • From the Publisher
March 19, 2018

From the New York Times-best­selling author Sloane Crosley comes Look Alive Out There?a brand-new col­lec­tion of essays filled with her trade­mark hilar­i­ty, wit, and charm. The char­ac­ter­is­tic heart and punch-pack­ing obser­va­tions are back, but with a new­found coat of matu­ri­ty. A thin coat. More of a blaz­er, really.


Fans of I Was Told There’d Be Cake and How Did You Get This Num­ber know Sloane Crosley’s life as a series of relat­able but mad­cap mis­ad­ven­tures. In Look Alive Out There, whether it’s scal­ing active vol­ca­noes, crash­ing shiv­as, play­ing her­self on Gos­sip Girl, befriend­ing swingers, or squint­ing down the bar­rel of the fer­til­i­ty gun, Crosley con­tin­ues to rise to the occa­sion with unmatch­able nerve and elec­tric one-lin­ers. And as her sub­jects become more seri­ous, her essays deliv­er not just laughs but last­ing emo­tion­al heft and insight. Crosley has tak­en up the gauntlets thrown by her predecessors?Dorothy Park­er, Nora Ephron, David Sedaris?and craft­ed some­thing rare, affect­ing, and true.

Look Alive Out There arrives on the tenth anniver­sary of I Was Told There’d be Cake, and Crosley’s essays have man­aged to grow simul­ta­ne­ous­ly more sophis­ti­cat­ed and even fun­nier. And yet she’s still very much her­self, and it’s great to have her back?and not a moment too soon (or late, for that matter).

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