Kill All Your Darlings by Lucy Sante

“Myths die hard, especially in the country that over the course of this century has led the world in the manufacture of durable myths. All kinds of thoroughly debunked specimens—the noble cowboy, the contented housewife, the edenic small-town past—continue to stagger along in the collective imagination because of their proven effectiveness as topical analgesics for reality-based headaches.”

—Lucy Sante, 2007