In his third book of essays, David Lazar blends personal
meditations on sex and death with considerations of popular music
and coping with anxiety through singing, bowling, and other
distractions. He sets his work apart as both in the essay
and of the essay by throwing himself into the form's
past—interviewing or speaking to past masters and turning over
rocks to find lost gems of the essay form.I'll Be Your Mirror
further expands the dimensions of contemporary nonfiction writing
by concluding with a series of aphorisms. Surreal, comical, and
urban moments of being, they are part Cioran, part Kafka, and part
Lenny Bruce. These are accompanied by Heather Frise's
illustrations, whose looking-glass visions of motherhood—funny and
grotesque—meet the vision of the aphorist in this most unusual
nonfiction book.