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catsy2022's review
challenging
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
4.0
Rating: A
Overall an interesting conversation about different beliefs and events that affected 6 noteworthy people collated in this book. The narrative structure is one of a series of stories and interviews presented in the first person perspective of the author. It feels like it could be a podcast. The first half of the book is the first 3 stories and the second half is the last 3. Chapters are rotated between the 3 people so as to not become overwhelming.
I will note that I did not expect the sheer amount of trauma mentioned in the book at all. Most of the content is on page references but there is on page homophobia and transphobia.
I really liked this book and noted so many quotes which I will put below. I will say that the ending Coda was weak compared to the rest of the book, I think it couldn't tie together ad well as the book itself was structured, the author may have been seeking to link the stories through their common themes but it didn't work for me. I was also surprised by the continuous mention of religion. I also think 2 separate quotes in the book were repeated by their respective interviewees but I can't be wholly sure.
Overall definitely worth the read, it's an interesting book.
It's about impermanence – how everything will diminish and eventually disintegrate. You will. I will. The dogs will.
On ghosts being dark matter: '[...] that argument seems a bit of a cop-out. To say we can't explain as though it must be quantum physics or it must be dark matter – something that we can't physically detect or measure - it seems like almost a religious cop out, so to speak, to default to something mystical, something beyond comprehension..."
On Annie's 6 failed marriages: Addiction is the word I think of. To something we are physically built to be addicted to: love, the security of attachment.
In 1963, Arendt wrote about how evil is much more mundane, more banal than she had assumed, and therefore all the more fearsome.
'It goes both ways,' Evelyn says. 'We have to look at the evidence.'
'Yes, but the problem is that I don't trust the evidence now because I don't trust the people doing the research,' he says.
reading the letters we receive, I'm always struck by how much, and how quickly, people convert their pain into self-loathing.
I want to marvel with them at that intuitive sense of Oneness. And how artificial the distance is between us, given our like atoms and the fact that we are each women, each mothers, tiny and enormous, fleeting and enduring, on this grain briefly populated in time everlasting.
Overall an interesting conversation about different beliefs and events that affected 6 noteworthy people collated in this book. The narrative structure is one of a series of stories and interviews presented in the first person perspective of the author. It feels like it could be a podcast. The first half of the book is the first 3 stories and the second half is the last 3. Chapters are rotated between the 3 people so as to not become overwhelming.
I will note that I did not expect the sheer amount of trauma mentioned in the book at all. Most of the content is on page references but there is on page homophobia and transphobia.
I really liked this book and noted so many quotes which I will put below. I will say that the ending Coda was weak compared to the rest of the book, I think it couldn't tie together ad well as the book itself was structured, the author may have been seeking to link the stories through their common themes but it didn't work for me. I was also surprised by the continuous mention of religion. I also think 2 separate quotes in the book were repeated by their respective interviewees but I can't be wholly sure.
Overall definitely worth the read, it's an interesting book.
It's about impermanence – how everything will diminish and eventually disintegrate. You will. I will. The dogs will.
On ghosts being dark matter: '[...] that argument seems a bit of a cop-out. To say we can't explain as though it must be quantum physics or it must be dark matter – something that we can't physically detect or measure - it seems like almost a religious cop out, so to speak, to default to something mystical, something beyond comprehension..."
On Annie's 6 failed marriages: Addiction is the word I think of. To something we are physically built to be addicted to: love, the security of attachment.
In 1963, Arendt wrote about how evil is much more mundane, more banal than she had assumed, and therefore all the more fearsome.
'It goes both ways,' Evelyn says. 'We have to look at the evidence.'
'Yes, but the problem is that I don't trust the evidence now because I don't trust the people doing the research,' he says.
reading the letters we receive, I'm always struck by how much, and how quickly, people convert their pain into self-loathing.
I want to marvel with them at that intuitive sense of Oneness. And how artificial the distance is between us, given our like atoms and the fact that we are each women, each mothers, tiny and enormous, fleeting and enduring, on this grain briefly populated in time everlasting.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Homophobia, Religious bigotry, Terminal illness, and Transphobia
Moderate: Toxic relationship
Minor: Child abuse, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Stalking, Suicide attempt, and Violence
On page descriptions.
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