{"product_id":"ambivalence-an-education-9798896231103","title":"Ambivalence: An Education","description":"\u003cb\u003eA coming-of-age memoir set in late-twentieth-century Dublin, recounting writer and critic Brian Dillon's first encounters with pivotal writers in his life--Virginia Woolf, Samuel Beckett, Walter Benjamin, and others--and in the process arguing for the transformative power of art, literature, and learning.\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eWhen Brian Dillon was sixteen his mother died, and he stopped caring about school. While he courted failure, his real education was going on elsewhere: with books, music, films, and television. When against all odds he made it to college, his head was already full of avant-garde writing, art, and ideas. Could he live up to the hopes and dreams he attached to culture? Halfway through college his father died, and the stakes of Dillon's education seemed even higher.\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eAmbivalence\u003c\/i\u003e is a memoir of the author's native city of Dublin in the 1980s and '90s, a portrait of the author as a young man, and an intimate defense of radical thinking about literature and life. In vivid, present-tense passages, Dillon describes his first encounters with writers such as Virginia Woolf, Walter Benjamin, Roland Barthes, and Jacques Derrida. He recalls being seduced by androgyny, ambiguity, and ambivalence on the page and in the life he hoped his reading would transfigure.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Brian Dillon\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e New York Review of Books\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 09\/08\/2026\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 192\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.60lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 8.60h x 5.90w x 0.90d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9798896231103\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eReview Citation(s): \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e 07\/13\/2026\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eLibrary Journal\u003c\/i\u003e 08\/01\/2026 pg. 78\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBrian Dillon\u003c\/b\u003e was born in Dublin in 1969. His books include \u003ci\u003eAffinities\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eSuppose a Sentence\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eEssayism\u003c\/i\u003e (all published by New York Review Books), as well as \u003ci\u003eThe Great Explosion\u003c\/i\u003e (short-listed for the Ondaatje Prize), \u003ci\u003eObjects in This Mirror\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eI Am Sitting in a Room\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eSanctuary\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eTormented Hope: Nine Hypochondriac Lives\u003c\/i\u003e (short-listed for the Wellcome Book Prize), and \u003ci\u003eIn the Dark Room\u003c\/i\u003e, which won the Irish Book Award for nonfiction. His writing has appeared in \u003ci\u003eThe Guardian\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe New York Times\u003c\/i\u003e, the \u003ci\u003eLondon Review of Books\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe New Yorker\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe New York Review of Books\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003efrieze\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eArtforum\u003c\/i\u003e. He has curated exhibitions for the Tate and Hayward galleries. He lives in London.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"booksdeli.com","offers":[{"title":"Brian Dillon \/ Paperback \/ English","offer_id":48912401072285,"sku":"9798896231103","price":22.74,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/booksdeli.com\/products\/ambivalence-an-education-9798896231103","provider":"booksdeli.com","version":"1.0","type":"link"}