Emily Mester Knows Why We’re Drowning In Gift Guides
Books The authors new book of essays probes our relationship with overconsumption. On the r/deadmallsReddit page, photos of linoleum-tiled halls and emptied ornamental fountains proliferate. This is an extreme of the bleak feeling that author Emily Mester likes to call Mall Sad. In her debut essay collectionAmerican Bulk, Mester defines the American Dream as abundance. What does it mean to be good at buying things? Whatever hunter-gatherer impulse people might have, mine manifests as finding things to buy....