How to Be Normal: Essays

by Phil Christman

Overview

Phil Christman is one of the best cultural critics working today. Or, as a reviewer of his previous book, Midwest Futures, put it, "one of the most underappreciated writers of [his] generation."

You may also know Phil from his columns in Commonweal and Plough, or his viral essay "What Is It Like To Be A Man?", the latter adapted in his new book, How to Be Normal. 

Christman’s second book includes essays on "How To Be White," "How to Be Religious," "How To Be Married," and more, in addition to new versions of the above. Find in it also brilliant analyses of middlebrow culture, bad movies, Mark Fisher, Christian fundamentalism, and more. 

With exquisite attention to syntax and prose, the astoundingly well-read Christman pairs a deceptively breezy style with radical openness. In his witty, original hands, seemingly "normal" subjects are rendered exceptional, and exceptionally.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781953368294
Publisher:	Belt Publishing
Publication date:	03/15/2022
Pages:	232
Product dimensions:	4.90(w) x 6.90(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Phil Christman is the author of Midwest Futures, winner of both the Independent Publisher Book Award and a Midwest Independent Publisher Award. He currently lectures in the English department at University of Michigan. His work has appeared in The Hedgehog Review, Commonweal, The Christian Century, The Outline, and other places. He lives in Ann Arbor, MI.

Table of Contents

Author's Note

How to Be Normal

How to Be a Man

How to Be White

How to Be Cultured (I): Bad Movies 

How to Be Cultured (II): Middlebrow

How to Be Religious (I): Faith

How to Be Religious (II): Fundamentalism

How to Care: On Mark Fisher

How to Be Married

How to Be Midwestern

A Normal Reading List

Credits and Acknowledgements

Notes

Editorial Reviews

11/15/2021

Critic and lecturer Christman (Midwest Futures) examines in these searching essays his various identities—as white, heterosexual, and a “left-of-center Christian,” to name a few—through the lens of their being unexceptional. Despite what the title suggests, this isn’t a how-to, but rather an exploration of averageness in which Christman considers such subjects as racism, masculinity, artistry and religion. In “How to Be White,” he surveys the “vast, flimsy” nature of “whiteness” and lambasts “shit-eating allyism,” in which “a person of privilege suspends, at least rhetorically—most of the time it is only rhetorical—their... claim to basic self-respect or human rights.” He critiques the prevalent usage of vague terms to assign value to art in “How to Be Cultured (II): Middlebrow,” observing how in America, “None of us can enjoy our pleasures till we think someone wants us not to have them.” Christman is at his sharpest when analyzing religion, as seen in “How to Be Religious (II): Fundamentalism,” in which he reflects, “What growing up fundamentalist helped me learn early on, is how terribly wrong you can be while thinking very hard.” While there are moments in which Christman doesn’t sufficiently articulate his line of thinking, his style is, for the most part, cogent and on-point. It’s a probing and provocative collection. (Feb.)

Publishers Weekly

"Phil Christman is one of the best essayists in America. . . . [H]e is unafraid to reject the portions of a position that do not withstand scrutiny, and his largely left-wing conclusions are the product of careful and humane self-searching." —Becca Rothfeld, TLS

"Erudite riffs on race, religion, masculinity, and other contentious subjects...A crisp set of essays that bring big social and cultural debates to a human level." —Kirkus Reviews 

"A probing and provocative collection." —Publishers Weekly

"Christman presents essays on a variety of topics ranging from race and masculinity to religion and pop culture, all written in the tone of a subversive self-help guide. Engaging a belles-lettristic negative capability, Christman takes on the big subjects while always remembering that the point of criticism is to more fully be a person, part of 'our little attempts that we make at building a home in this world.'" —Ed Simon, The Millions

"In a host of grimly besieged arenas of public life, from religion and race to mass culture and masculinity, Christman charts a frank and fearless guide for the perplexed, the battered, the exhausted, and the outraged." —Chris Lehmann, The New Republic

“Mr. Christman titles the collection and each of the essays with the 'How to' format, but he points out in an author’s note that this is not an advice manual. Rather, he takes on a subject and examines the generalizations and shibboleths clinging to it, puncturing them with personal experience and his intellect—and with considerable research to back them up. . . . Throughout How to Be Normal, the voice is earnest and intense, often spiraling around a subject. . . . But as for the promise of comfort suggested by the title of this book, Mr. Christman has some disappointing news: ‘There is no normal to get back to anymore.'” —Richard Babcock, Wall Street Journal

From the Publisher

2021-10-26
Erudite riffs on race, religion, masculinity, and other contentious subjects.

The title of Christman’s second book is facetious. "Normal,” he knows, is both unrealistic and pretty much nonexistent at the individual level, a point that’s clearer now that Covid-19 has wildly disrupted “our little attempts that we make at building a home in this world.” However, the title of this collection of informed, inviting essays hints at a common theme: A more stable society requires challenging the pieties and presumptions we bring to touchy subjects. It’s no easy task, and Christman acknowledges his own struggles. In “How To Be a Man,” he skewers acculturated masculinity’s “abstract rage to protect” as sexist and borderline racist, but he concedes how his own actions have implicated him. In the strongest, most nuanced piece, “How To Be White,” the author voices skepticism about anti-racist jargon (which often leads to what he calls “shit-eating allyism”) and exposes the false premises of Whiteness while recognizing how toxic the “labyrinth” of racism is. Christman delivers his scholarship with a certain humility, but he gives no ground when it comes to injustice, and he's often witty. Recalling evangelical hand-wringing about alleged Satanic backward messages on rock albums, he quips, “If you wish to be offended, from any number of perspectives…by Zeppelin, that’s easy enough to manage with the record playing forward.” Navigating difficult social challenges, he argues, requires eschewing absolutism and cultivating a certain ambivalence. Religion is more meaningful, he writes, when you stop thinking about God as a “personal mood improver”; marriage matters not because of high-flown vows but “because you have met a person interesting enough that, death being inevitable, you’d prefer to experience it with them.”

A crisp set of essays that bring big social and cultural debates to a human level.

Kirkus Reviews