No Judgment

”[Oyler’s] sense of humor is present, as is her agile thinking….Several essays here provoked the surprising thought, ‘This is the sanest thing I have ever read on this topic.’ … These episodes are fluidly stitched together with added context from history and literature, which is the structure of most of the essays in the book. At its best, it feels like your smart friend explaining to you something you missed on the internet, why it’s important and what it means… . Oyler is a sharp and confident critic.” – New York Times Book Review

“The essay collection everyone’s talking about.” – New York

“Witty, agile essays from the novelist and New Yorker writer with a talent for cutting through the hype…stimulating company on the page.” – The Guardian

“Here, Oyler writes about her profession, her own anxiety, and topics from gossip to vulnerability–giving all a close, honest look that leaves the reader with a kind of clarity that didn’t exist before.” – Town & Country

“Oyler is one of our sharpest and most fearless cultural critics… . Opining on gossip and anxiety, autofiction and vulnerability, and much, much more, [her] caustic wit and penetrating voice shine through every essay.” – Sophia Stewart, The Millions

“These peppery inquiries are rigorously informed, deftly composed, and deeply conceptualized interpretations of human foibles and endeavors in a world feverish with social media and hooked to the ‘attention economy’ … Oyler is frank, fierce, funny, and brilliant; her brainy, passionate criticism exhilarating.” – Booklist (starred review)

“Absorbing and funny … [Oyler] has plenty of interesting things to say about autofiction, spoilers, and life as an expatriate… . A challenging and often eye-opening nonfiction debut.” – Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

”[Oyler’s] takes would be dizzying if she were not so skilled in constructing solid arguments that deepen our understanding of cultural criticism. No Judgment is deeply funny and wise.” – BookPage

“Whether she’s writing a personal essay, jour-nalism or criticism, Oyler brings to the task evidence of wide reading, thoughtful engage-ment and vigorous prose… . Her jour-nalistic explorations of gossip and of online reviews, especially those on Goodreads, are both enlightening and provocative. Oyler is a writer who will have readers nod-ding in agreement on one page and shaking their heads vigorously on the next. Whatever the reaction at a given moment, one can rest assured that her writing is never dull.” – Harvey Freedenberg, BookPage

“Oyler’s commentary is incisive, and her prose is lucid and playful… . This is as intellectually stimulating as it is fun to read.” – Publishers Weekly

“Oyler adeptly employs her research and logic to stay tight to a theme. Most delightfully, her sardonic voice permeates the entire collection.” – Shelf Awareness

“With her new collection of essays, No Judgment, Oyler is self-aware in her observations, covering at length, for instance, the dominance of autofiction over the last decade, a genre that Oyler explored with her 2021 debut novel, Fake Accounts. It’s rare that young writers get the chance to go this granular on topics of their choosing; with, No Judgment, Oyler takes this advantage and runs with it, diving into subjects like the utility of gossip, anxiety, life in her now-home city of Berlin, and the rise of the star rating system for books–or, the act of reviewing itself.” – W Magazine

“Like stumbling into the best archival New Yorker essays–smart and unafraid and (thank God) funny. This is exactly what I want to read.” – Monica Heisey, author of Really Good, Actually

“Brisk, honest and soaring with élan. Oyler persuasively advocates clear thinking through doing it herself with such poise. Her critical approach isn’t currently common sense, but it should be, and soon enough maybe it will.” – Naoise Dolan, author of Exciting Times and The Happy Couple

Lauren Oyler’s essays on books and culture appear regularly in The New Yorker, the New York Times, the London Review of Books, and other publications, and she is a contributing editor of Harper’s Magazine. She is the author of the novel Fake Accounts and lives in Berlin.