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Money Changes Everything: Twenty-Two Writers Tackle the Last Taboo with Tales of Sudden Windfalls, Staggering Debts, and Other Surprising Turns of Fortune
 
 
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Money Changes Everything: Twenty-Two Writers Tackle the Last Taboo with Tales of Sudden Windfalls, Staggering Debts, and Other Surprising Turns of Fortune [Hardcover]

Jenny Offill (Author), Elissa Schappell (Author)
4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)


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Book Description

January 16, 2007
The editors of The Friend Who Got Away are back with a new anthology that will do for money what they did for women’s friendships.

Ours is a culture of confession, yet money remains a distinctly taboo subject for most Americans. In this riveting anthology, a host of celebrated writers explore the complicated role money has played in their lives, whether they’re hiding from creditors or hiding a trust fund. This collection will touch a nerve with anyone who’s ever been afraid to reveal their bank balance.

In these wide-ranging personal essays, Daniel Handler, Walter Kirn, Jill McCorkle, Meera Nair, Henry Alford, Susan Choi, and other acclaimed authors write with startling candor about how money has strengthened or undermined their closest relationships. Isabel Rose talks about the trials and tribulations of dating as an heiress. Tony Serra explains what led him to take a forty-year vow of poverty. September 11 widow Marian Fontana illuminates the heartbreak and moral complexities of victim compensation. Jonathan Dee reveals the debt that nearly did him in. And in paired essays, Fred Leebron and his wife Katherine Rhett discuss the way fights over money have shaken their marriage to the core again and again.

We talk openly about our romantic disasters and family dramas, our problems at work and our battles with addiction. But when it comes to what is or is not in our wallets, we remain determinedly mum. Until now, that is. Money Changes Everything is the first anthology of its kind—an unflinching and on-the-record collection of essays filled with entertaining and enlightening insights into why we spend, save, and steal.

The pieces in Money Changes Everything range from the comic to the harrowing, yet they all reveal the complex, emotionally charged role money plays in our lives by shattering the wall of silence that has long surrounded this topic.

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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Considering how freely many Americans talk about everything from sex to addiction, "why does such secrecy still surround the issue of money?" ask Offill and Schappell (coeditors of The Friend Who Got Away). It's a conundrum they say arises from a host of core ideas about what it means to live in America: an ostensibly meritocratic society, where "only the self-made man or woman represents the vaunted ideal." This collection of personal essays by 22 writers strives to open the pecuniary dialogue, illustrating the complexity of the issue through alternately touching, humorous and instructive examples. One writer worries over his newfound yuppiedom as he purchases an elderly neighbor's apartment. In another essay, the wife of a firefighter killed on 9/11 feels "overwhelmed by managing the money [she's] been given." In a third, a frugal young woman is forced to auction her family heirlooms to discharge her mother's financial debts. Artists cover their well-heeled tracks for fear of appearing inauthentic, up-and-comers spend too much to bed sophisticated women and, along the way, the reader learns that talking about money is actually just talking about life. Which isn't such a big deal, is it? (Jan.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review

Praise for The Friend Who Got Away:

“Rife with the passion and pain, the sadness and glory and startling depths of women's friendships, this book will grab you and shake you and spit you out, awed and chastened. But not before you’ve read every word.” —Cathi Hanauer, editor of The Bitch in the House

“An intense, intelligent collection of first-person accounts by women who analyze and mourn friendships lost.” —Time Out New York

“These tales are truly heartwarming and heartbreaking. Which pretty much describes the too often fleeting nature of friendship.” —Daily Candy

The Friend Who Got Away . . . reveals women to be thoughtful and kind, sometimes callous and neglectful, like all humans.” —New York Times Book Review

Product Details

  • Hardcover: 320 pages
  • Publisher: Doubleday; 1 edition (January 16, 2007)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 038551669X
  • ISBN-13: 978-0385516693
  • Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.1 x 0.8 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
  • Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,126,408 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

 

Customer Reviews

4 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
4.0 out of 5 stars (4 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars This one will have you thinking about how money has affected YOUR life and is a FUN read!, March 4, 2007
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This review is from: Money Changes Everything: Twenty-Two Writers Tackle the Last Taboo with Tales of Sudden Windfalls, Staggering Debts, and Other Surprising Turns of Fortune (Hardcover)
FIrst off, this is NOT a how-to book on personal finance. If you want that, go find one of the tons of books on the subject. But this book could help you change your outlook on money and think about how your own life has been affected by it. Each essay in this book is a personal confession or revelation about how money or money problems (or obtaining a sudden windfall) greatly changed someone's life.
Let's face it- Discusing one's personal finances with friends, even family, can be as taboo as discussing sex - and so it is relief to find a book where that taboo is broken. I'm sure plenty of readers will relate to the dilemnas of twenty two writers who explore the various ways money has altered their lives, whether it was going into a deep depression during a debt crisis, living with guilt after inheriting money as a 9/11 widow, being open about money fights with one's spouse, why someone would take on a vow of poverty or the unique challenges of dating a heiress.
This book will make you think - and perhaps rethink- your attitude towards finances. After all, it's only money - or is it?
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1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Insightful perspectives, March 17, 2007
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This review is from: Money Changes Everything: Twenty-Two Writers Tackle the Last Taboo with Tales of Sudden Windfalls, Staggering Debts, and Other Surprising Turns of Fortune (Hardcover)
I really liked this book. It's amazing how everyone views money differently! The essays kept my interest and I am recommending the book to others.
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2 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Money Does Change Everything, February 26, 2007
By 
Helene Hirmes (Sarasota Florida) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: Money Changes Everything: Twenty-Two Writers Tackle the Last Taboo with Tales of Sudden Windfalls, Staggering Debts, and Other Surprising Turns of Fortune (Hardcover)
We get into more trouble when we don't communicate well with others. Money has always been such a taboo. It would probably solve so many problems if people could talk more openly about this subject. Money has too much power over us. Wouldn't be nice if we could value people more than money?
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