Starred review from February 1, 2018
Dahl, editor of New York magazine's Science of Us, knows awkward. She has, by her own admission, been unofficially studying the topic for the better part of three decades. Cringeworthy is her attempt to finally get to the bottom of this ubiquitous human experience, using herself as guinea pig. Over the course of her research, she subjects herself to scenarios that would make even the most confident among us cringe. She attends a weekend retreat to discuss race in America. She joins a stage show where participants read from their middle-school diaries. And she interviews a number of people who have courted (or been dragged to) moments of awkwardness in the public eyeviral-video stars, Reddit moderators, stand-up comics. Though this is Dahl's first book, she brings a background in journalism to the world of popular psychology, interspersing her personal anecdotes and experiences with readable, thoughtful analysis of formal studies of embarrassment and self-awareness. The result is a book we can all relate to. As Dahl says, The ridiculous in me honors the ridiculousness in you. (Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)