NATIONAL BESTSELLER • NAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY NPR, TIME, OPRAH DAILY, KIRKUS REVIEWS, GOODREADS, AND MORE
“Brilliant…A high-spirited, exhilarating memoir.” —The Wall Street Journal • “In Joyride, the takeaway often has as much to do with the art of living as the art of writing.” —Elle • “Wise and exuberant…It’s funny, as well. Just masterful.” —David Sedaris • “Superbly good…Ebullient, frank, moving, and inspiring.” —Booklist (starred review)
From Susan Orlean, the beloved New Yorker writer and bestselling author of The Orchid Thief and The Library Book who has been hailed as “a national treasure” by The Washington Post, comes a masterful memoir of finding her creative calling and purpose that invites us to approach life with wonder, curiosity, and an irrepressible sense of delight.
“The story of my life is the story of my stories,” writes Susan Orlean in this extraordinary, era-defining memoir from one of the greatest practitioners of narrative nonfiction of our time. Joyride is a magic carpet ride through Orlean’s life and career, where every day is an opportunity for discovery and every moment holds the potential for wonder. Throughout her storied career, her curiosity has drawn her to explore the most ordinary and extraordinary of places, from going deep inside the head of a regular ten-year-old boy for a legendary profile (“The American Man Age Ten”) to reporting on a woman who owns twenty-seven tigers, from capturing the routine magic of Saturday night to climbing Mt. Fuji.
Not only does Orlean’s account of a writing life offer a trove of indispensable gleanings for writers, it’s also an essential and practical guide to embracing any creative path. She takes us through her process of dreaming up ideas, managing deadlines, connecting with sources, chasing every possible lead, confronting writer’s block and self-doubt, and crafting the perfect lede—a Susan specialty.
While Orlean has always written her way into other people’s lives in order to understand the human experience, Joyride is her most personal book ever—a searching journey through finding her feet as a journalist, recovering from the excruciating collapse of her first marriage, falling head-over-heels in love again, becoming a mother while mourning the decline of her own mother, sojourning to Hollywood for films based on her work including Adaptation and Blue Crush, and confronting mortality. Joyride is also a time machine to a bygone era of journalism, from Orlean’s bright start in the golden age of alt-weeklies to her career-making days working alongside icons such as Robert Gottlieb, Tina Brown, David Remnick, Anna Wintour, Sonny Mehta, and Jonathan Karp—forces who shaped the media industry as we know it today.
Infused with Orlean’s signature warmth and wit, Joyride is a must-read for anyone who hungers to start, build, and sustain a creative life. Orlean inspires us to seek out daily inspiration and rediscover the marvels that surround us.
Fascinating look at the life of an author
"Breezy and candid, intimate and expansive, this memoir, by non-fiction writer Susan Orlean, refuses to be typecast. The author, an expert in the art of a quirky sort of storytelling, featuring uniquely interesting real-life characters, places or topics, each of which is are not quite what you’re expecting, will surely both entertain and inform you. The author is known for her exhaustive research, appetite for learning, no-holds-barred attitude, and engaging, folksy writing and style, — the combination of which allows her to leapfrog into the worlds of her characters, getting inside their heads and bringing the reader along for the ride. In this memoir, the author turns her pen inward, while keeping to the same formula. So much so that, as subject to her own story, she does first invite a friend to interview her, letting readers in on her own very personal warm-up period, as she learns to inhabit her own “self” as one of her characters. A joyful read follows, with plenty of interesting meanders into the author’s personal life and loves. Most interesting of all is the content devoted to simply sharing her craft, the background to her successful career, and the backstories to the multitude of stories that made it to print in book or magazine, tv or even the big screen. An all-together fascinating look at the life of an author, the ups and downs of her personal life, and the drive, energy, passion and professionalism underlying each of her forays into a new literary project. I loved this book and found its chatty, sweeping coverage tells its tale with just the right levels of both revelation and restraint. The author emerges a little crushed around the edges (she is human too, and not afraid to share it all) and so approachable and genuine that her story cannot help but shine. A great big thank you to #Netgalley, the author and the publisher for an ARC of this book. All thoughts presented are my own."
