“Monroy chronicles her efforts to find lasting love with the (often unsolicited) advice of her opinionated mother, a retired U.S. visa screener referred to as “The Profiler”… [she] provides insight into managing expectations and the layers of experience, how we can construct a vivid romantic narrative around someone when we are merely a “bit player” in their own story… it is interesting to watch Monroy learn her lessons, to stop romanticizing her partners or assigning them to neat boxes, to assert boundaries and rules, even if they get broken. When she finally gets her happy ending, it feels earned. —Publishers Weekly
“Thrilling, enigmatic, wow! and beautifully observed—these are just a few of the things I’ve written in the margins of these essays. Liza Monroy’s writing is as fun as it is profound, as lively as it is moving—this is a book you’ll want to tell people about.” —Elizabeth McKenzie, author of The Portable Veblen
“Unlike some of the skinflint, unreliable, or downright psychotic male suitors who appear in her outstanding memoir, Liza Monroy is a great date – a masterful storyteller, witty, urbane, tender, and hilarious. This is a fast-paced, deftly written, unsparing, and hilarious journey through the landscape of bad love. Monroy’s imperious, charming, boyfriend-deporting Mom, AKA The Profiler, is a memoir character for the ages; she seems to have emerged, fully formed, from the pages of a Philip Roth novel.” —Dan White, author of Under the Stars and The Cactus Eaters
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