Lump It or Leave It

The misanthropic essayist takes a caustic look at topics including higher education, traditional values, feminist obsessions, and advice to the South.

Lump It or Leave It, Florence King’s latest volume of rapier-edged contemplations on American tomfoolery—er, values—takes on everything from the hazards of fame to the joys of menopause, with all the bile and brio that has made her the nation’s most beloved misanthrope. From college professors (“incapable of earning a living with either their minds or their hands”) to the South (“if at first you don’t secede, try, try, again”) to the US government (“the crude leading the crud”), few fools remain unskewered by the reigning Queen of Spleen.

“Opinionated and entertaining, King . . . here discourses widely and vigorously on American ways. Little escapes her stiletto wit. . . . These scattershot essays reach their targets.” —Publishers Weekly