American Bulk: Essays on Excess
In a series of deeply personal essays, Mester explores how the things we buy, eat, amass, and discard become an intimate part of our lives. We guiltily watch Amazon boxes pile up on the porch, wade through endless reviews to find the perfect product, and crave the comforting indulgence of a chain restaurant. With humor and sharp intellect, Mester reflects on the joys and anxieties of Costco trips, how a seasonal stint at Ulta Beauty taught her the insidious art of the sale, and what it means to get "mall sad." In a nuanced examination of diet culture and fatness, Mester recounts her teenage summer at fat camp and the unexpected liberation she finds there. Finally, she ventures to Storm Lake, Iowa, to reckon with her grandmother's abandoned hoard, excavating the dysfunction that lies at the heart of her family's obsession with stuff. American Bulk introduces readers to a striking new literary talent from the American heartland, one who dares to ask us to regard consumption not with guilt but with grace and empathy.
Earn by promoting books
Earn money by sharing your favorite books through our Affiliate program.
Become an affiliate
With compassion, wit, and piercing honesty, Emily Mester delves into our love of consumerism--and what our desires say about who we want to become. Bravely personal, incisively critical, American Bulk is a report on our national psyche and a captivating family story.--Larissa Pham, author of National Book Critics Circle John Leonard finalist Pop Song
American Bulk is composed of some of my favorite nonfiction essays on family, capital, love and dysfunction that I've ever read. It's a refreshing and needed reframing of what all these things mean, today, right now, as the neon haze of fast-food signs flicker from their long-time dominion of the American experience. Mester examines our compulsion to consume with careful incisions that I kept highlighting and coming back to, just to whisper the words to myself to make their clear-eyed cleverness my own.--Arabelle Sicardi, beauty writer and author of the forthcoming The House of Beauty
Paints a vivid portrait of American consumerism....A thought-provoking view of our relationship with consumption and excess.-- "Kirkus Reviews"
Inquisitive and deeply observed....In a late-stage capitalism heaving with choice, Mester assumes the role of a millennial Virgil with both style and grace....Mester forges a compassionate route through brand-name overabundance to better understand the impulse to consume.-- "Shelf-Awareness"
[American Bulk] excels at restoring texture to the smooth banalities of our consumer existence. Mester is like a Midwestern Baudrillard....[A] cultural critic of such promise deserves a big welcome mat.--Alexandra Jacobs "New York Times Book Review"
Sly and brilliant...looks not only at the rise of ever more disposable goods but at the relationship we as consumers have with them.--Emma Brockes "Guardian"
A dryly witty and deeply thoughtful essay collection that delves into everything from the bulk-buying psychology that powers Costco's popularity to what it's like to work seasonal shifts at Ulta Beauty.--Emma Specter "Vogue"
