What: The subtitle of Susan Orlean's The Bullfighter Checks Her Makeup is "My Encounters with Extraordinary People." Among the extraordinary people Orlean profiles are: a "typical" ten-year-old boy, a female matador, Hawaiian surfer girls, designer Bill Blass, and a taxi driver who's also an Ashanti king. For each essay, Orlean's opening hooks are irresistibly hook-y (see Representative Quotes below), but it's the sense that she is genuinely interested in her subjects that keeps you reading.
Comparable to: Orlean writes with a distinctive New Yorker style, so it's easy to see similarities between her writing and that of other New Yorker writers like Adam Gopnik.
Representative quote: "Of all the guys who are standing around bus shelters in Manhattan dressed in nothing but their underpants, Marky Mark is undeniably the most polite."
Bonus representative quote: "If I were a bitch, I'd be in love with Biff Truesdale."
You might not like it if: You just don't care for Orlean's style.
How to get it: Look for that bright yellow cover online, in bookstores, or at your library. Also Kindle-able.
Connections to previous Wreckage: Susan Orlean's first major essay collection was Saturday Night (Rec. #15).
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