To Hell with All That

From The New Yorker 's most entertaining and acerbic wit comes a controversial reassessment of the rituals and events that shape women's lives.

Having so many choices, Caitlin Flanagan maintains, has torn women away from what many of them want most: to raise a family and run a household. It's a nearly heretical statement in today's world, and like so many of the fresh ideas put forth in To Hell with All That, it might make some readers angry, but it will also make them think.

Flanagan covers the waterfront of women's lives today, from the quotidian (anticlutter fixations, Martha Stewart obsessions, and overscheduled children) to the more profound (wedding rituals, sexless marriages, and the ethics of hiring a nanny), in a hilarious, entertaining, and provocative book that reshapes the national debate about what it means to be a wife and mother in the twenty-first century.

"Flanagan writes with intelligence, wit, and brio. She's likeable." — New York Times Book Review

"An immensely appealing writer and social observer." — Wall Street Journal

"One of the liveliest and most controversial essayists on the scene." — Dallas Morning News