All Things Are Too Small

'I loved her ruthless, impatient thinking, her ferocious attention' Adam Thirlwell, New Statesman Books of the Year 2025 From one of the most talented young thinkers in the US, a warm, funny and intellectually dazzling call for excess, ecstasy and disorder in an age of sterility and minimalism TIME MAGAZINE'S 100 MUST-READ BOOKS OF 2024 NEW YORK TIMES ' 100 MOST NOTABLE BOOKS OF 2024 PROSPECT BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR 2024 'Scintillating writing of breadth and power' Observer 'Seriously precise and very funny' Telegraph 'A radical and important book' James Wood Our culture's embrace of minimalism and uniformity has left our souls impoverished. Decluttering has reduced our living spaces to empty non-places; the mindfulness trend has emptied our minds of the thoughts that make us who we are; and the regularization of sex has drained it of unpredictability and therefore true eroticism. In an age of oppressive sterility and limitation, All Things Are Too Small is a refreshing and much-needed tonic: a soul cry for derangement, imbalance, obsession, ravishment and disorder.

'I loved her ruthless, impatient thinking, her ferocious attention' Adam Thirlwell, New Statesman Books of the Year 2025 From one of the most talented young thinkers in the US, a warm, funny and intellectually dazzling call for excess, ecstasy and disorder in an age of sterility and minimalism TIME MAGAZINE'S 100 MUST-READ BOOKS OF 2024 NEW YORK TIMES ' 100 MOST NOTABLE BOOKS OF 2024 PROSPECT BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR 2024 'Scintillating writing of breadth and power' Observer 'Seriously precise and very funny' Telegraph 'A radical and important book' James Wood Our culture's embrace of minimalism and uniformity has left our souls impoverished. Decluttering has reduced our living spaces to empty non-places; the mindfulness trend has emptied our minds of the thoughts that make us who we are; and the regularization of sex has drained it of unpredictability and therefore true eroticism. In an age of oppressive sterility and limitation, All Things Are Too Small is a refreshing and much-needed tonic: a soul cry for derangement, imbalance, obsession, ravishment and disorder.

A spiky, funny and intellectually dazzling response to modern culture - from BDSM to mindfulness to Sally Rooney 'Bracing and brilliant ... scintillating writing of breadth and power' Kate Kellaway, Observer 'A radical and important book' James Wood, author of Serious Noticing 'Seriously precise ... and very funny' Telegraph In All Things Are Too Small , virtuoso young critic and philosopher Becca Rothfeld turns her clear gaze to a series of interconnected cultural and political questions - about aesthetics, taste, literature, equality, power and sexuality. In a healthy culture, she argues, economic security allows for wild extremes of aesthetic experimentation, yet in our society we've got it flipped. The gap between rich and poor yawns hideously wide, while we compensate with misguided attempts to effect equality in love and art, where it does not belong. Our culture's embrace of minimalism has left our souls impoverished: decluttering has reduced our living spaces to empty non-places; the mindfulness trend has emptied our minds of the thoughts that make us who we are; the regularization of sex has drained it of unpredictability and therefore true eroticism; and our quest for balance has yielded fictions whose protagonists aspire to excise their appetites. As intellectually illuminating as it is gloriously carnal and earthy, All Things Are Too Small is a much needed tonic in a world of oppressive sterility and limitation, and a soul cry for derangement, imbalance, obsession, ravishment and disorder.

A spiky, funny and intellectually dazzling response to modern culture - from BDSM to mindfulness to Sally Rooney 'Bracing and brilliant ... scintillating writing of breadth and power' Kate Kellaway, Observer 'A radical and important book' James Wood, author of Serious Noticing 'Seriously precise ... and very funny' Telegraph In All Things Are Too Small , virtuoso young critic and philosopher Becca Rothfeld turns her clear gaze to a series of interconnected cultural and political questions - about aesthetics, taste, literature, equality, power and sexuality. In a healthy culture, she argues, economic security allows for wild extremes of aesthetic experimentation, yet in our society we've got it flipped. The gap between rich and poor yawns hideously wide, while we compensate with misguided attempts to effect equality in love and art, where it does not belong. Our culture's embrace of minimalism has left our souls impoverished: decluttering has reduced our living spaces to empty non-places; the mindfulness trend has emptied our minds of the thoughts that make us who we are; the regularization of sex has drained it of unpredictability and therefore true eroticism; and our quest for balance has yielded fictions whose protagonists aspire to excise their appetites. As intellectually illuminating as it is gloriously carnal and earthy, All Things Are Too Small is a much needed tonic in a world of oppressive sterility and limitation, and a soul cry for derangement, imbalance, obsession, ravishment and disorder.