I Was Told There'd Be Cake

Sloane Crosley is the author of the novel The Clasp, and the bestselling essay collections How Did You Get This Number and I Was Told There'd Be Cake, which was a finalist for the Thurber Prize for American Humor. Her essays and criticism have appeared in The New York Times, New York Observer, the Village Voice, Playboy, Teen Vogue, Salon, Black Book, Radar, Maxim, and The Believer. She lives in New York City.

For those for whom the publication of new work by David Rakoff or Sarah Vowell would be a literary event equivalent with the announcement of an eighth Harry Potter novel, the release of Crosley’s debut collection of keenly insightful personal essays should have similar impact. The New York Times, NPR, and Village Voice contributor’s take on everything from volunteering to vegetarianism, bridesmaid’s duties to baking disasters escorts readers on a raucous ride through the fluctuating minefield that is contemporary culture. Crosley’s sardonic observations have a sassy edge; her nimble humor, a naughty zing. Yet beneath her smug persona of “young woman about town” (that town being Manhattan) lurks another, more vulnerable image: that of sensitive “mall rat from suburbia” (the suburbs being Westchester.) Real and recognizable, Crosley’s is the voice of everyone’s favorite quick-with-the-quips sister, daughter, roommate, coworker. With an unabashed appreciation for the trenchant irony inherent in life’s more quotidian activities, Crosley exposes society’s—and her own—most endearing qualities. --Carol Haggas