You’ve Changed
Why—and how—do people change? For six years, New York Times bestselling author Benoit Denizet-Lewis traveled the country and the world exploring the mystery of transformation: why we chase it, fear it, and so often misunderstand it in ourselves and each other.
In You’ve Changed, Benoit examines human transformation in our age of political turmoil, technological upheaval, climate disaster, and psychic despair. Everywhere—on Instagram, in recovery meetings, through name-change petitions and political conversion manifestos—people are shedding old skins. But where is the line between reinvention and delusion? And what does it really mean to become a new person?
With curiosity and a mischievous delight in life’s detours and contradictions, Benoit introduces psychedelic voyagers, gender transitioners, ideological shapeshifters, seemingly reformed murderers, and an octogenarian grandmother determined to change her temperament (“Better late than never!” she says). Alongside them are psychologists, neuroscientists, name-change specialists, and even his own father, a breath and meditation teacher devoted to self-transformation.
Threaded through these unforgettable encounters are the author’s own heartbreaks and epiphanies, revealing that change is slippery, scary, beautiful, politically charged—and best tackled with humility riding shotgun, holding the map upside down.
In the end, You’ve Changed speaks to anyone who has tried to become someone new, mend what felt broken, or coax a loved one toward a breakthrough.
Travels With Casey
A 2014 New York Times bestseller, Travels With Casey: My Journey Through Our Dog-Crazy Country tells the story of Benoit’s 32-state, 13,000-mile journey in an RV with a Labrador he worried didn't like him very much. On the way, he meets a colorful cast of dogs and dog-obsessed humans. Casey and Benoit hang out with wolf-dogs in Appalachia, search for stray dogs in Missouri, spend a full day at a kooky dog park in Manhattan, get pulled over by a K9 cop in Missouri, and visit “Dog Whisperer” Cesar Millan in California. And then there are the pet psychics, dog-wielding hitchhikers, and two nosy women who took their neighbor to court for allegedly failing to pick up her dog’s poop.
Travels With Casey was reviewed positively everywhere from the New York Times to Modern Dog. People named TWC its “Book of the Week.” Publisher's Weekly raved that though “comparisons to John Steinbeck's Travels With Charley are obvious... this is an entirely different and equally rewarding piece of work that expands with each page without losing its narrative thread or the readers's interest.” Benoit was called “warm, often hilarious company” (New York Times), “a master at effortlessly weaving research into his narrative" (Los Angeles Times), a “hot summer author” (USA Today), and the creator of a “funny, fast-paced, life-affirming, moving, and satisfying... adventure tale” (Lambda Literary).
America Anonymous
For nearly three years, Benoit immersed himself inside the lives of eight addicts–including a grandmother, a college student, a bodybuilder, a housewife, and a drug and gambling addiction counselor–hooked on everything from alcohol and crack to food, gambling, and sex. America Anonymous shines a spotlight on our most misunderstood health problem (is addiction a brain disease? A spiritual malady? A moral failing?) and tries to break through the shame and denial that still shape our cultural understanding of it—and hamper our ability to treat it.
Published in 2009, the book—a New York Times Editors’ Choice selection—was widely and positively reviewed. Elle called it “graceful and compelling” and lauded it for its “deeply refreshing, unpuritanical frankness.” In a starred review, Kirkus dubbed it “an arresting, personal glimpse into the merciless world of drug and behavioral addiction” marked by “seasoned, dexterous prose.” The Cleveland Plain-Dealer called it “engrossing” and wrote that Benoit gives “readers a sense of the ravaging power of addiction.”
American Voyeur
A collection of magazine writing from early in Benoit’s career, American Voyeur: Dispatches From the Far Reaches of Modern Life takes readers inside some unexpected corners of American life. He visits a summer camp for pro-life teenagers, a San Francisco neighborhood where homeless teens have made a home, a New Hampshire town where two popular brothers committed suicide, a compound in the Ohio woods where Abercrombie & Fitch reigns (or used to) over the teen fashion world, a Boston social group for “lipstick lesbians,” and other unusual communities and subcultures.
The San Francisco Chronicle wrote that the book “marries comprehensive reporting to perhaps the best chosen subject matter (the reviewer has) read in a long time, the kind of stories you clip and save over months before discovering they belong in a single author's folder.” Publishers Weekly added that American Voyeur “offers stirring and sensitive portraits of individuals—frequently adolescents—struggling to articulate desire and identity while bearing the weight of societal taboo and marginalization... (Benoit) combines sharp-eyed reportage, sensitive depiction, and happily, considering the sober subject matter, a wry wit.”