The Audio Book Club on This Beautiful Life

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Slate editors Emily Bazelon, Josh Levin, and Hanna Rosin discuss Helen Schulman’s new novel, This Beautiful Life, about a viral video which ruins the life of two teenagers at a posh New York City prep school. The novel, set in 2003, explores the still urgent question of what happens when teenagers, with all their impulsive, clueless tendencies, have such free access to technology. Teenager Jake Bergamot forwards to a friend an amateur pornlike video that 13-year-old Daisy Cavanaugh made for him, and the aftermath effectively wrecks his family. Bazelon, an expert on teens and technology, is convinced the novel is faithful to how such events would unfold. Levin is moved by the voice of young Jake and his teenage friends, and Rosin is much less moved by the Bergamot family’s eventual breakup.


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