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Too Much cover art

Too Much

Written by: Rachel Vorona Cote
Narrated by: Suehyla El-Attar, Rachel Vorona Cote
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Publisher's Summary

Lacing cultural criticism, Victorian literature, and storytelling together, "Too Much spills over: with intellect, with sparkling prose, and with the brainy arguments of Vorona Cote, who posits that women are all, in some way or another, still susceptible to being called too much" (Esmé Weijun Wang).

A weeping woman is a monster. So, too, is a fat woman, a horny woman, a woman shrieking with laughter. Women who are one or more of these things have heard, or perhaps simply intuited, that we are repugnantly excessive, that we have taken illicit liberties to feel or fuck or eat with abandon. After bellowing like a barn animal in orgasm, hoovering a plate of mashed potatoes, or spraying out spit in the heat of expostulation, we've flinched-ugh, that was so gross. I am so gross. On rare occasions, we might revel in our excess - belting out anthems with our friends over karaoke, perhaps - but in the company of less sympathetic souls, our uncertainty always returns. A woman who is Too Much is a woman who reacts to the world with ardent intensity is a woman familiar to lashes of shame and disapproval, from within as well as without.

Written in the tradition of Shrill, Dead Girls, Sex Object, and other frank books about the female gaze, Too Much encourages women to reconsider the beauty of their excesses - emotional, physical, and spiritual. Rachel Vorona Cote braids cultural criticism, theory, and storytelling together in her exploration of how culture grinds away our bodies, souls, and sexualities, forcing us into smaller lives than we desire. An erstwhile Victorian scholar, she sees many parallels between that era's fixation on women's "hysterical" behavior and our modern policing of the same; in the space of her writing, you're as likely to encounter Jane Eyre and Lizzie Bennet as you are Britney Spears and Lana Del Rey.

This audiobook will tell the story of how women, from then and now, have learned to draw power from their reservoirs of feeling, all that makes us "Too Much".

©2020 Rachel Vorona Cote (P)2020 Grand Central Publishing

What the critics say

"Rachel Vorona Cote's debut is a whip-smart fusion of cultural criticism and deeply compelling personal narrative, packed with insights on everything from wedding bands to mental illness. Exploring all the many ways women have been bound and limited throughout history and into our current moment, Too Much is ultimately a joyful, satisfying, and educational celebration of women and their beautiful excesses." (Julie Buntin, author of Marlena)

"Readers whose tastes run from George Eliot to Lorde will embrace the book's feminist message." (Publishers Weekly)

"A fascinating exploration of how literature and pop culture have constructed (and exploded) our expectations of modern womanhood, this book is as gloriously defiant as the women it profiles. It's a necessary read for anyone who's ever wondered whether her 'muchness' is too much." (Robin Wasserman, author of Mother Daughter Widow Wife)

What listeners say about Too Much

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