CJ HAUSER teaches creative writing at Colgate University and lives in Hamilton, NY. They received their MFA from Brooklyn College and PhD from Florida State. They have published two novels, Family of Origin and The From-Aways. In 2019 they published a viral essay, The Crane Wife, in the Paris Review, about their decision to call off their wedding and go on an expedition to study the whooping crane. The essay reached over a million readers, was shared by 538 journalists from 293 different outlets all over the world, and recommended online by the likes of Roxane Gay, Busy Phillips and Caitlin Moran. The Crane Wife- A Memoir in Essays is their first work of full-length non-fiction.
Outstanding . . . An elegant masterpiece . . . Wry but also warm
and generous
*Roxane Gay*
Thoughtful and fitfully funny . . . Across 17 confessional essays,
we find [CJ] furtively spreading her grandparents' ashes at their
old house in Martha's Vineyard, contemplating breast reduction
surgery and reflecting on her relationships with a high-school
boyfriend and a divorcee who is clearly still in love with his
ex
*Guardian, Best Memoirs of 2022*
Brilliant and beautiful . . . An absolute must-read
*Frances Cha, author of IF I HAD YOUR FACE*
Hauser is refreshingly candid and self-aware. They're unafraid to
get into the hard stuff-and it's that vulnerability that makes
their writing so accessible. Simultaneously clever, heartfelt, and
wrenching, The Crane Wife underlines the messy relationship we all
have with love
*TIME, 100 Must-Read Books of 2022*
Bold and brilliant and psychologically exquisite, CJ Hauser is a
deeply gifted and generous writer. THE CRANE WIFE is
enthralling
*Charlotte Fox Weber, author of WHAT WE WANT*
Sometimes a viral essay is just a viral essay. Other times, as with
Hauser's story of breaking off her engagement (written for The
Paris Review), a piece that spoke to millions will lead to
something bigger - in this case, an absorbing memoir in essays
*New York Times Book Review, Editors' Pick*
Funny and tender
*Sun*
After reading this memoir-in-essays by the warm, wise, wry, and
wonderful CJ Hauser, author of the viral Paris Review essay "The
Crane Wife," you'll have to go fix your face. Were you crying
laughing or just crying? Both? Splash some cold water on your
cheeks. That's it. Now, go forth in peace with a new understanding
of what it means to live and love
*Garden & Gun, Best Southern Books of 2022*
A deeply personal and vivacious memoir . . . eye-wateringly funny .
. . [and] intensely introspective as she focuses on what she is
looking for and what she feels is missing
*Irish Examiner*
Stunning and interrogative. . . Brilliant. . . Calling Hauser
'honest' and 'vulnerable' feels inadequate. She embraces and even
celebrates her flaws, and she revels in being a provocateur. . .
Much has been written on the themes Hauser excavates here, yet her
perspective is singular, startlingly so. Many narratives still
position finding the perfect match as a measure of whether we've
led successful lives. The Crane Wife dispenses with that. For that
reason, Hauser's worldview feels fresh and even radical
*Oprah Daily*
Intimate, all-too-relatable magic. Hauser writes like she's
whispering hard-earned secrets to a friend, picking apart how she
has been held hostage to her own fantasies about love and happiness
in warm and vulnerable scenes. . . What a gift it is, to have the
curtains lift and let us all in
*Electric Lit*
As Hauser grapples with the changing shape of her life story, it's
fitting that the shape of each essay and, indeed, the shape of the
collection itself, are self-consciously experimental in form. . .
Reading The Crane Wife is a bit like following Hauser into the
Mirror Maze, her voice as narrator guiding the way through and out.
Whether writing about familial or cultural stories, each text
becomes a mirror in which Hauser sees herself reflected back. And
in her willingness to turn inward, to truly face herself, Hauser's
essays open outward, becoming themselves mirrors into which readers
might gaze
*Ploughshares*
I absolutely LOVED these essays. I knew I ought to ration myself to
one a day in order to prolong the joy and fascination of them, but
I just couldn't: I had to carry on reading and reading, like eating
a whole packet of jelly babies in one sitting. What a fantastic,
original, funny and touching voice! C J Hauser is a wondrous
writer. This book will give so much happiness
*Cressida Connolly, author of AFTER THE PARTY*
Compassionate and funny and brave. The book is a masterclass in
life writing, and a lesson in how to live a life outside the
narratives that would contain us. CJ is a master story weaver. I
was left wanting more, in the best way possible
*Charlie Gilmour, author of Featherhood*
In The Crane Wife, Hauser undertakes a new way for her to tell
stories from her life, playing with history and personal history,
exploring the possible hidden truths in her family's past and her
own. The result is like interconnected short stories but about her
life, the person she is and was, maybe even the person she never
knew herself to be. Funny, exciting, vulnerable - truly
visionary.
*Alexander Chee, author of QUEEN OF THE NIGHT and HOW TO WRITE AN
AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL NOVEL*
The Crane Wife more than delivers on the immense promise of the
viral essay that served as its source. My goodness is it funny, but
also so devastatingly honest and bracing. Reading it is like taking
a long road trip with your wisest, sharpest friend and talking the
entire way.
*R. Eric Thomas, bestselling author of Here For It*
The Crane Wife is brilliant and beautiful - the vulnerability of
her viral essay is expanded to include immense humour, pondering
and further misadventures of the heart. An absolute must-read. I
will be gifting this book all year long
*Frances Cha, internationally bestselling author of IF I HAD YOUR
FACE*
In this perceptive and probing work, Hauser brilliantly parses the
myths that shaped her understanding of love. . . Sparkling. . . A
thrillingly original deconstruction of desire and its many
configurations
*Publishers Weekly, starred review*
Hauser is a delightful and agile writer, capable of speaking in
multiple registers, but what all of her essays have in common is
honesty, wisdom, a certain loopiness-she's an old soul with a fresh
perspective and an energetic, wandering mind. The result is an
imaginative and beautiful memoir, one that'll be passed through the
secret sisterhood of crane wives for years.
*Jennifer Senior*
Readers looking for something a little different in a memoir will
not be disappointed. The strongest essays exemplify Hauser's keen
awareness about life so far: things don't always work out as
planned, love is complicated, and trusting your gut is, sometimes,
the best option.
*Library Journal*
Perceptive and witty
*Shelf Awareness*
Intimate, witty and beautifully crafted
*Elle*
"I am a kind of breakup pro," Hauser writes late in this lively,
thoughtful, and often funny set of personal essays-at a point when
the reader has learned much about how unlucky in love she's been. .
. Hauser makes a welcome effort to talk about both love and culture
in unconventional ways. . . A smart, inviting, and candid clutch of
self-assessments
*Kirkus Reviews*
A staccato, funny, barbed, metaphor-laced, and thought-provoking
memoir-in-essays. . . No matter her focus, Hauser's deductions
about human nature are always arresting, delving, fresh, and
exhilarating
*Booklist*
While it's always difficult to summarize an essay collection, what
holds The Crane Wife together is Hauser's unpacking of emotional
truths: who do we love, and why, and what happens when they're
gone? When we're alone? When we forget what it was like to love
them?
*LitHub*
Ask a Question About this Product More... |