Reviews

What Nelson does so well is break every rule you could possibly think of when it comes to writing a memoir but still let the book make sense. She flips back and forth, but her topics are consistent throughout. Each bundle of anecdotes—no matter how split up they seem—are continually supported by ongoing themes. It truly feels like you're inside of her mind in a really wonderful way.

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Mai 2020.
My goodness I don't know where to begin. !!!

Mai 2020
I love how Nelson informs while exploring. None of that brusque attitude towards her subjects. I especially loved the sequences about motherhood and her conversations with Harry Dodge.

26. mai. 2020
Very complex & beautiful.
It is an exemple of how storytelling is one of the greatest ways of challenging yourself to look for alternative ways of seeing / experiencing / understanding / defining the world and the people we meet. Maggie Nelson said in an interview with Olivia Laing that once an interviewer had requested a more direct definition of "what" Harry Dodge was and became, as if the whole point of the book was to tell about his journey from This Defined Thing to That Defined Thing.
Is it lack of trust in a storyteller who will not be defined, or is it fear of not being able to understand something that does not fit one's own basis of understanding?
The credibility or relevancy of a storyteller should not be determined by whether they appeal to the reader's/listener's exact world view and knowledge. If we limit ourselves to only our world view, our definitions and our understanding, we miss out on so many possibilities, and we also discriminate the storytellers who see the world differently. (storyteller being anyone who offers a glimpse of their thoughts to you - communicatiors )