“Agudas” by Michelle Dean: Words That Cut Like Knives

The new book by Michelle Dean, a compilation of biographical articles about great (and sharp) conversationalists, arrives in bookshops in March 2019. A key text about great female figures who lived and held opinions during the 20th century.

Cover of the Spanish edition of Agudas and portrait of Michelle Dean. At therumpus.net

The feminist movement has been revolutionizing society and consciences for decades; in these times, its presence is increasingly evident and has greater influence. Until recently, the voices of many women have barely had the opportunity to be heard: that is why it is a real pleasure to approach those who, with their incisive words and brilliant minds, opened a breach through which they managed to make themselves seen. Agudas, the latest book by Michelle Dean published by Turner Libros, speaks of women like these: a compilation of articles about intellectuals who made conversation an art… and a double-edged weapon. Reading Agudas is like attending a social gathering, where amid the drinks, the canapes and the laughter, phrases and comments slip out that can extol or sink careers. Many of the names that appear in the book figure in golden letters in the history of 20th-century literature and journalism: Hannah Arendt, Nora Ephron, Susan Sontag, Rebecca West, Joan Didion, Mary McCarthy, Dorothy Parker, Janet Malcolm, Pauline Kael, Lillian Hellman, Zora Neale Hurston and Renata Adler.

Michelle Dean talks about her book. Via PSB Books.

There are many things that unite these women, besides their sharp tongue and their importance in Western letters. For example, the author points to a general lack of modesty shown by the book’s protagonists as a common element. They considered themselves, and rightly so, influential and important people. And they had no qualms about demonstrating it. In this sense, the phrase with which Mary McCarthy greeted Susan Sontag in the late 1960s is revealing: “I hear you are the new me”. For the brilliant women who appear in Agudas, “I” was something that (clearly) was worth being. It is worth highlighting the courage that all of them demonstrated in their writings, comments, reviews and quotations: one must not forget that they lived and worked, as Dean comments, in a world that “was not interested in hearing women’s opinions on any subject”. They defied this wall of indifference, and opened breaches with their sharp and keen minds. In the book one clearly appreciates the passion that some of those reflected awaken in the author, and the lesser interest that others arouse in her. But all are essential to generate that atmosphere the texts evoke: in the end, the book is a gathering of great minds where swords are raised. Brilliant… and deadly.

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