“Combining a gonzo theoretical orientation with an appreciation for detail and specificity, Grace Lavery rummages through the archive of BoJack Horseman with the best of them while throwing in a bit of Shakespeare, feminist theory, and wild speculative gestures. She illustrates how the sitcom reveals the weaknesses of not only the structure of the nuclear family but the ways the family works against the interests of the individual. Closures is a funny, engaging, smart, and eclectic book.” - Jack Halberstam, author of Wild Things: The Disorder of Desire
“A stylish writer and wickedly perceptive critic, Grace Lavery makes a compelling argument that the sitcom is an exercise in the endless undoing and repairing of the heterosexual family. Remarkable for the engaging openness of its critical intelligence, Closures is by far the best account of the sitcom—a genre that continues to have a symptomatic afterlife in our horrifying culture.” - Joseph Litvak, author of The Un-Americans: Jews, the Blacklist, and Stoolpigeon Culture
"Intriguing. . . . This is worth a look for theory-minded fans of the genre." - Publishers Weekly
"Closures demonstrates what a masterful literary critic can do with the flimsy and the abject, as the book brings high theory to bear—delightfully, speculatively—on the likes of Mork & Mindy and New Girl. . . . Lavery points the way, proving beyond a doubt that the pleasures of criticism and bad TV need not be at odds." - Isabel Bartholomew, Los Angeles Review of Books
"Closures reads like a zany amusement park ride through a fantastical, queer, broadcast-network-nonspecific Disneyland. . . . Closures is intelligent, surprising in the specificity of its examples, and above all, immersive. The great delight of the book lies in Lavery’s intellectual and aesthetic survey of the sitcom, from The Addams Family and Amos & Andy . . . all the way to its structural unraveling in shows like Bojack Horseman and Rick & Morty." - McKenzie Watson-Fore, Full Stop
"[A] delightful study that, albeit short, is filled with enlightening and provocative gems of observation. . . . Summing Up: Highly recommended. General readers through faculty." - Choice
"Short and entertaining. . . . Through textual analysis of a range of examples spanning the history of the American television sitcom up to the end of the 2010s, Lavery demonstrates the form’s persistent use of queerness to disrupt the heterosexuality on which the basic underlying situations of series assume their stability." - Richard Dhillon, Historical Journal of Film, Radio, and Television
"Her reading cleverly substantiates a feminist intervention into the field of genre studies. She highlights an original interpretation of the sitcom through a breadth of shows, a depth of theory, and a hint of humor. . . . Lavery’s feminist intervention into the sitcom genre builds a frame for readers to reflect on the project of unfinishedness in the sitcom, dabble in theoretical frameworks, and ultimately think about a topic anew—exactly what an academic text should do." - Sarah E. Fryett, Resources for Gender and Women's Studies
"Like the sitcom, Lavery’s book is short and sweet. . . . In a somewhat ironic turn, Closures is a thought-provoking book about a genre that we often turn to in order to avoid thinking." - Megan Vladoiu, Journal of Gender Studies
