Authority: Essays

This brilliant collection from Chu (Females) showcases the Pulitzer Prize–winning critic’s reflections on literature, television, and the art of criticism. Reviewing novels by some of contemporary literature’s biggest names, Chu dismisses Hanya Yanagihara’s To Paradise as a “book in which horrible things happen to people for no reason,” and argues that the off-putting characters in Ottessa Moshfegh’s Lapvona illustrate how “disgust does not preclude delight—and, in fact, it often enhances it.” In “Bad TV,” Chu offers a nuanced take on how such “woke” shows as Master of None and Transparent blurred the lines between politics and entertainment in such a way that by the time the #MeToo movement arrived, it was received like a TV show, complete with complaints about “believability.” The two strongest essays reckon with the role of critics. In the thought-provoking “Criticism in a Crisis,” Chu argues that critics must bring a clear-eyed understanding of their own politics and values to elucidating the moral meaning of the art they interpret. The eponymous essay explores how throughout history, critics and ruling classes have appealed to similar sources (tradition and religion during the Middle Ages; rationality and law during the Enlightenment) to legitimate their authority. Intellectually rigorous and lucidly argued, this affirms Chu’s status as one of the most incisive critics working today. Agent: Chris Parris-Lamb, Gernert Co. (Apr.)