This witty, provocative, and utterly honest exploration of the personal landscape of failure in a larger philosophical context will change the way readers view their own lives. The author’s own struggles are chronicled, from trying to fit in at his posh prep school, to dealing with his rejection from Harvard, to making peace with his failure as an academic, and betraying his beloved wife after she was diagnosed with cancer. By breaking his silence and examining his own enduring sense of failure, he confronts the terrifying fear of failure―a universal feeling everyone can relate to.
The distinguished literary critic and editor Sven Birkerts said of Failure: An Autobiography: “Outing himself as a failure, Gidding outs all of us. But what a pleasure it is: the sweet burn of shame, the head-rattling impact of pride after the fall, the false redemption of complaint. If you don’t connect to this book you are probably in terminal denial.” Boston Globe columnist Alex Beam wrote, “It’s so good it’s flirting with greatness” (July 23, 2007). The book was featured in a Newsweek article called “Betas Rule” (June 4, 2007), and later got a mention in Giles Harvey’s New Yorker piece on memoirs of failure (March 25, 2013).
