- Blue Rider Press
A few years ago, inspired by her boyfriend, who cared a lot about clothes, Sheila Heti, the author of the great autobiographical novel/philosophical inquiry How Should a Person Be?, decided that it was time to learn how to put more thought into her personal appearance and become more stylish.
And, yes, there were a few that were boring and self-involved that I wanted to skip. But most I wanted to keep reading.
They’re also really fun questions to think about, at least with the voices Heti, Julavits, and Shapton have assembled. Everyone is bound to find one who makes you sit up and wait to hear from again. Mine is Gilda Haber, a British-born sociology professor who provides a highly entertaining history of sumptuary laws and whose entry on the subject of glamour begins, “I was seven and about to be a bridesmaid at my wicked aunt Mitzi’s first wedding.” It ends, “Right then, I decided to leave home and come to America, which I did.” There’s a whole novel right there.
