This collection of reviews, essays and profiles form New Yorker contributor Janet Malcolm is a real treat. Elegantly and clearly written, the articles in this collection cover a range of subjects and I found all of them interesting and thought-provoking. From fashion designer Eileen Fisher, of whom I had never heard but who comes alive here on the page, to Tolstoy (and Malcolm writes particularly intelligently about Russian authors) and from the Argosy Bookshop in New York to British author Alexander McCall Smith, there must surely be something for everyone to relish here. I read all of them and enjoyed each and every one. I hope the New Yorker issues more such collections.

The cover, featuring pianist Yuja Wang, and the first essay, “Nobody’s Looking At You,” featuring Eileen Fisher, initially attracted me to this book of essays on various topics by Janet Malcolm. I will definitely be looking for more of her essays in THE NEW YORKER and THE NEW YORK REVIEW OF BOOKS.

Malcolm’s writing enchants, but she is at her best with looking behind the curtain with celebrity profiles. The political pieces are just far enough away to feel outdated but not yet historical.

Janet Malcolm's Nobody's Looking at You is a collection of previously published essays, from profiles to book reviews to general cultural commentary. Malcolm is a fluid, beautiful writer. She has a delightful way of putting things - take, for example, her description of Dianne Feinstein: "a thirties-move character in her own right, with her Mary Astor loveliness, and air of just having arrived with a lot of suitcases." I love that so much.

My favorite section was the profiles - including one on Eileen Fisher (her description of the company's insular corporate-speak is hilarious) and another on Rachel Maddow. The most fascinating to me, though, was the profile of Yuja Wang, an amazingly talented pianist I'd never heard of before. (That's her on the cover of the book, which is actually what drew me to it.) Malcolm's essay on Supreme Court justice nomination hearings was excellent, but it was published in 2006 and I did wish for a coda featuring everyone's least favorite beer loving justice, just to hear Malcolm's thoughts on the whole debacle. Her book reviews were great as well - I really enjoyed one discussing the translators Pevear and Volokhonsky. I previously enjoyed their work but am now very curious to read the versions that Malcolm prefers, by Garnett. (She was very convincing in regards to the superiority of Garnett's work.) I also very much enjoyed her evisceration Jonathan Bate's biography of Ted Hughes. All in all, a beautifully written collection.

I read several of these essays when they were first published; returning to them after several years was like meeting up with an old friend on the street. Janet Malcom subtly illuminates the everyday. Even when her subject is a celebrity, she walks with them through the mundane, and gives us a fascinating glimpse of their personalities and quirks. Malcolms writing is spare and elegant, and always on point. Her review of “Send” is an eloquent reflection on writing by a writer’s writer.

I’m a little slow to review this collection, because a rationed myself to one or two essays a day. They are really that good!

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Janet Malcolm has an intense curiosity which, when combined with her impressive scholarship, has resulted in essays that go above and beyond any surface treatment of a subject. Also, being a lifelong New Yorker, she has had privileged access to those kind of behind-the-scenes situations that further illuminate the lives of those she writes about. It was as fascinating to read about the confirmation of a Supreme Court Judge as it was to learn about Yuja Wang and the importance of her concert wear. She breathes life into such material.

The pieces that originally appeared in the New Yorker are character studies, while those from the New York Review of Books are reviews, but reviews that examine much more than content. For example, in several pieces she examines the sexism quotient in such divergent works as a scathing biography of Ted Hughes and the comic No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series by Alexander McCall Smith. But in another she goes into, at great length, the different styles of various translators of Russian literature, the effect "modernization" has on a classic and the interpretation of Tolstoy. After reading this, I will definitely read her first compilation.

Janet Malcolm is the virtuoso of narrative essays.This group of essays bring together a compilation of her engrossing revealing essays.From an intimate view of Eileen Fisher the fashion designer to the Argosy Bookstore that I’ve visited many times & the three sisters who run it to Rachel Maddow the tv journalist the strong anti trumpest we get to see the real Rachel her childhood her education her personal life.Each essay drew me in to interesting people topics.Highly recommend .
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