NF

Olga Khazan has a unique reportorial voice. She'll explain and discuss her subject with the clear, friendly, and serious tone that has come to characterize modern nonfiction writing, and then as often as not, break into a surprisingly revealing personal anecdote, which may also be accompanied by a devastatingly funny dry witticism. She is professional and controlled, yet she puts herself out there to an amazing extent, particularly for one who is (as she will be the first to admit) self-doubting, self-conscious, and frankly neurotic. I do not feel for a moment that this was a deliberately adopted style, although it may be deliberately maintained. Deliberate or not, I find it endearing, quite in contrast to what she says in a March 2022 Atlantic article: "I've never really liked my personality, and other people don't like it either."

Her next book will be based on that article, which is about the extent to which people can alter their supposedly fixed personality types using modern psychological techniques and willpower. While waiting for that book, I checked out Weird, her first book. The book's packaging, complete with blurb from Susan Cain, makes clear that Weird is marketed toward those who liked Quiet, Cain's landmark book about introversion, but it's not as successful in provoking a new way of thinking about what's generally accepted to be a negative trait. Where Quiet led me to recognize and accept myself in ways I hadn't anticipated, Weird's primary effect was to remind me that despite everything, I haven't had it as bad as many people have. Its insights about how people can use their apparent freakishness to thrive and even excel aren't new, and it hasn't given me a new way to think about one of my major defining traits, as Quiet did. And to tell the truth, the first hundred-plus pages of the book, detailing the horrible experiences (usually in childhood) of people who were considered weird for widely varying reasons, were downright depressing.

As it happens, the chapter on personality ("Change Yourself") was the best of the book, so I'm still excited to read the new one. Meanwhile, Khazan's distinct style made an otherwise slightly disappointing read fun. I particularly enjoyed the way she wrapped up a short but heavy chapter with a discussion of the little-known movie Dumplin'. "Dumplin' is, in many respects, not very good," says Khazan. "Jennifer Aniston, weepy and coiffed, plays the [Texas beauty-queen] mom with too much twang and not enough Prozac." She connects the movie to her point, but it's such an unusual way to wrap up that you have to laugh. I, too, am weird enough to watch a movie like Dumplin', but would I write about it to make a serious point in my first book?

If my review had any possible bearing on Khazan's career, she might, as she says in her Atlantic article, soothe herself "by drinking one of those single-serving wines meant for petite female alcoholics." But I'm in her corner all the way, and recommend that you keep an eye out for anything she writes. ( )

This is both memoir and reporting, and I loved the premise but had a harder time with its execution. The author has interviews that are with multiple people, but their stories get spread out throughout the book; it’s hard to focus and remember who everyone is, although I appreciated each of their experiences. I’m not sure if I took away the empowerment attitude about being a weirdo that the author was aiming for, but it did help me continue to be comfortable with my utter eff-it-all feeling about things. ( )

Had high hopes, being quite weird myself. Writing is wry and funny. I enjoyed it up until she used a progressive-minded sex researcher at a relatively conservative university as a real fish out of water situation. I'm sorry; not buying that contrived silliness for one hot minute, including the "statistics" she cited trying to make the case that the student body at even Midwestern State University is somehow a hotbed of homophobic Bible thumpers. That's not remotely connected to reality. Passed on reading the rest. ( )

First off, a big thank you to Hachette and NetGalley for gifting me this book in exchange for my honest review. I love Olga Khazan's articles in the Atlantic so it was an honor and a privilege to review her first book.

I would say that occasionally feeling "weird" is part of the human condition, but fitting in is undoubtedly more challenging for some of us. As a Russian Jew growing up in the Bible Belt, Olga Khazan has firsthand knowledge of how difficult it can be to be different. Khazan uses her experience to identify and empathize with others who feel like outsiders. From a doctor with dwarfism to a transgender mayor in a small town near Dallas, Khazan interviews a wide range of people who have embraced their "weird" and triumphed in the face of adversity. Through careful examination of character traits such as perseverance and creativity Khazan shows how "weird" people can use the qualities that make them unique as a kind of superpower. As a person with a chronic illness I felt that the author did a wonderful job of getting to the heart of what makes us feel "weird" and showing how to use what we often see as weaknesses to our own advantage. We all know what it's like to feel weird, but Khazan's work shows that being different isn't necessarily a disadvantage. By reclaiming the word "weird" Khazan inspired me to embrace the things that make me extraordinary and to share my unique perspective with the world.

Weird is Olga Khazan's debut novel, but her years of writing for the Atlantic give her writing a readability that nonfiction authors sometimes lack. Khazan has a gift for providing information in a way that is not only entertaining, but totally engrossing. I felt a connection with both the author and the various interviewees and I know that their stories will continue to inspire me for some time to come. ( )