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herald's review against another edition
4.0
ideal, a neurotic biracial woman and her erudite lover, jimson - bound together by a toxic throughline of polemic arguments, trauma bonding, domestic abuse, coercive threats, manipulation, emotional terror and professed affectations of "true love".
my cousin gifted this to me after seeing it on my readlist and although i appreciated that, i realized it was both the worst and best time to be reading it as i'm currently going through a friend breakup and third party situation that imitates the horrors in this book in a way that hits a little too close to home, giving way to a very on and off reading pace. i mentioned this book to my sister otp who likened my description to the fetishistic sam levinson film 'malcolm & marie' on netflix. the recurring textual allusions to this being a virgo ~ sagittarius pairing brought to mind the astrological optics of the relationship between beyonce and jay-z as well as the hint that this may be semi autobiographical given the author's shared sun sign. that in mind, it's become my tendency to cast characters as a way to put a name to a face, so:
zendaya as ideal
william jackson harper as jimson
my initial impression was feeling jaded with how superfluous the writing was; convoluted word choice and poetic descriptions of random shit that felt very hit or miss emotionally. about a quarter way through i realized the nature of the book and acclimated to the mercurial aesthetic, a somber psychoanalytic excavation of double consciousness and black life in america through the microcosm of a failed relationship. a diligent woman undyingly tethered to her abuser, too paranoid and isolated to remove herself from her situation. a well read man adamant in his refusal to be held accountable, provide, or actualize himself outside of pretentious misogynoiristic ramblings and careerist aspirations.
flagellants" re: extremist religious practitioners who flogged each other in public as a way to invite god's mercy, and simultaneously a metaphorical reference for this couple as they trade barbs and intellectualize their opposing perspectives of black plight in this country. there is no mutuality to abuse - there is only an aggressor who instills and normalizes their imbalance of power with violence and a victim who retaliates against it, anything else is a disingenuous obfuscation. as much as it hurts, i feel this might've helped in my realization that until there is such a thing as communal love and justice among us, i have to understand that people reserve the agency to make their own mistakes and that some [men] are too deplorable to be left alive.
insightful article + (resonant music that got me thru it):
• remorseless - billy woods
• light of the seven - ramin djawadi
• de profundis - max richter
• i used to thug her (sweetness) - mach-hommy
• sexy love - max b
• neria - oliver mtukudzi
my cousin gifted this to me after seeing it on my readlist and although i appreciated that, i realized it was both the worst and best time to be reading it as i'm currently going through a friend breakup and third party situation that imitates the horrors in this book in a way that hits a little too close to home, giving way to a very on and off reading pace. i mentioned this book to my sister otp who likened my description to the fetishistic sam levinson film 'malcolm & marie' on netflix. the recurring textual allusions to this being a virgo ~ sagittarius pairing brought to mind the astrological optics of the relationship between beyonce and jay-z as well as the hint that this may be semi autobiographical given the author's shared sun sign. that in mind, it's become my tendency to cast characters as a way to put a name to a face, so:
zendaya as ideal
william jackson harper as jimson
my initial impression was feeling jaded with how superfluous the writing was; convoluted word choice and poetic descriptions of random shit that felt very hit or miss emotionally. about a quarter way through i realized the nature of the book and acclimated to the mercurial aesthetic, a somber psychoanalytic excavation of double consciousness and black life in america through the microcosm of a failed relationship. a diligent woman undyingly tethered to her abuser, too paranoid and isolated to remove herself from her situation. a well read man adamant in his refusal to be held accountable, provide, or actualize himself outside of pretentious misogynoiristic ramblings and careerist aspirations.
flagellants" re: extremist religious practitioners who flogged each other in public as a way to invite god's mercy, and simultaneously a metaphorical reference for this couple as they trade barbs and intellectualize their opposing perspectives of black plight in this country. there is no mutuality to abuse - there is only an aggressor who instills and normalizes their imbalance of power with violence and a victim who retaliates against it, anything else is a disingenuous obfuscation. as much as it hurts, i feel this might've helped in my realization that until there is such a thing as communal love and justice among us, i have to understand that people reserve the agency to make their own mistakes and that some [men] are too deplorable to be left alive.
insightful article + (resonant music that got me thru it):
• remorseless - billy woods
• light of the seven - ramin djawadi
• de profundis - max richter
• i used to thug her (sweetness) - mach-hommy
• sexy love - max b
• neria - oliver mtukudzi
honeydewfelon's review against another edition
3.0
Read this book for my Black Arts Movement class. Within the context of this class, the book was interesting, breaking into new novel structures, abandoning traditional plot and dialogue. It's a bold book. It reads more like poetry than prose. Like a long, tangled poetic rant about race, politics, feminism.
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