“Laugh-out-loud prose, richly drawn characters and painfully real renderings of the fumbling social world of young adulthood . . . As full of whimsy as it is of heartbreak.”
—The New York Times
“Smart, poignant, and involving . . . Langbein excels at depicting the obsessive nature of illicit, unfulfilled desire — how it swamps judgement and just about everything else. . . . Though framed by a fantastical conceit, Dear Monica Lewinsky is at its core a realist novel, influenced by the feminism of #MeToo and precise in its delineation of character and place.”
—Los Angeles Times
“Dear Monica Lewinsky is a fascinating novel about the past, reckoning with the most elusive and unknown element: the person you once were and still somehow continue to be. It’s incredible that Julia Langbein navigates this territory with such humor, as this is a truly funny book, but also manages to show tenderness without losing that essential bite of pain.”
—Kevin Wilson, bestselling author of Nothing to See Here
“What a wild, wonderful essential novel this is. Julia Langbein has the uncanny ability to make a reader laugh out loud again and again while also laying bare — in her brilliant, singular way — the specific travail of being a young woman.”
—Claire Lombardo, bestselling author of The Most Fun We Ever Had and Same As It Ever Was
“An original, tender, and outrageously funny novel about hunger, desire, and the vulnerable (sometimes shameful) moments that make us, Dear Monica Lewinsky is a miracle. With incomparable tact and warmth, Julia Langbein achieves the impossible: balancing humor, consequence, and an irresistible ensemble of personalities against the glittering backdrop of a French summer. Comic novels with heft are the rarest stars in the literary firmament, and this one burns as brightly as the sun.”
—Katy Hays, New York Times bestselling author of Saltwater
“Hilarious, poignant, and exquisitely written, Dear Monica Lewinsky is a wholly original feminist ode. Langbein balances academic satire and emotional excavation, all with her signature wink. I’m obsessed with her mind.”
—Emily Habeck, author of Shark Heart
“Incandescent . . . Langbein packs the fierce and funny tale with weighty insights into female desire, ambition, and selfhood, making it a winning combination of comedy, critique, and fantasy. She also fully delivers on the audacious conceit. . . . [Dear Monica Lewinsky] is a revelation.”
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“[A] complex comic confection . . . Its bold, clever comedic lineaments [support] a serious and poignant examination of female desire and male power.”
—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“Inventive, funny and incisive—a delightful comedy that’s also frank in commenting on the trouble caused by institutional power imbalances between men and women.”
—BookPage (starred review)
“A sharp-eyed, potent examination of sex and power dynamics between young women and older men.”
—Booklist
“Langbein’s prose is a sharp, witty meditation on female longing and male authority.”
—Oprah Daily
“Truly hilarious . . . This book really speaks to me as a woman who came of age in the 1990s and thought I was a feminist. . . . I highly recommend this novel.”
—Maris Kreizman, The Maris Review
“Bold, weird, and brilliant . . . It’s funny, yes, but it’s also serious about female desire and male power. . . . The invention here is so confident, and the payoff feels strangely mythic, like it turns private pain into something larger and clarifying.”
—BiblioLifestyle
“Dear Monica Lewinsky is full of vivid descriptions. . . . This novel shows the huge difference in pre- and post-#MeToo understandings of sexual dynamics, but it also deftly portrays the gulf between late adolescence and middle age.”
—BookBrowse
“A witty and emotional exploration of young womanhood . . . This incisively funny academic satire is nuanced and thought provoking.”
—Shelf Awareness
“Langbein’s prose in Dear Monica Lewinsky is eloquent; reading this novel is like opening a gift and wanting more.”
—BookTrib
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