Hanging Out

February 20, 2023
Champlain College writing professor Liming (What a Library Means to a Woman) surveys in this erudite if meandering meditation “the many ways in which hanging out happens in contemporary culture” and encourages readers to do more of it in real life. Drawing largely from her own personal experiences with a smattering of references to literature, psychology, neuroscience, and sociology, Liming documents various places where people get together—such as dinner parties, academic conferences, musical jam sessions, and on social media—and discusses the degree to which they foster “connection, intimacy, and meaning.” Though Liming’s observational and storytelling skills shine, her examples often undermine the book’s prescriptive message by dwelling on awkward and unsatisfactory experiences; for example, the chapter on dinner parties opens with an account of the time the chancellor of North Dakota’s university system ruined Liming’s “dream dinner party” by eating filet mignon in front of a vegan guest of honor and leaving Liming and her husband to pay his $200 bill. Elsewhere, a chapter about television and contemporary social life gets sidetracked by an anecdote about filming episodes of a friend’s reality TV show. This is a mixed bag.