Working the Room

27. Working the Room by Geoff Dyer

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


I'm a bit torn about this book since I just read Otherwise Known as the Human Condition: Selected Essays and Reviews which shares over 300 pages of content with this volume arranged in nearly the same way.

If I were picking one to read, I'd go with Otherwise Known as the Human Condition since it contains a few essays I really liked that this one does not.

However, Working the Room has two advantages:

1. It has 8 color plates which are much better than the black and white reproductions in the other book, although the plates are oddly placed far beyond the essays on visuals.

2. It has an index which I'm nearly certain the other book does not.

My favorite essays from Working the Room (also in the other book) are: "John Cheever's The Journals" which ends with a great quote about writing, his observations during fashion week while on assignment from Vogue while knowing nothing about couture in "Fabulous Clothes," and his experience of "The 2004 Olympics" which reminded me so much of my own. Also his personal essays, "Otherwise Known as the Human Condition (with particular reference to Doughnut Plant doughnuts)" and "Of Course."

The best scenario is your library has both books, so you can look at the plates in this one while reading the essays in the other.


A year ago on TTaT: Life of Art SitRep #14