Scan barcode
bettyreads's review against another edition
5.0
Amazing essay, lyrical poems and short story collection. Honest, witty, funny, sassy, powerful. A must read. Having met Wendy at literary swag book club (look it up if you're in NYC and come throughhh) last night just made this even more special; being able to ask her questions and hear her thoughts behind some of the passages was awesome.
Go get this, peeps. <3
This gave me the energy to get back into reading since it has been a difficult month physically and emotionally. I'm ready to read. :]
Go get this, peeps. <3
This gave me the energy to get back into reading since it has been a difficult month physically and emotionally. I'm ready to read. :]
arisbookcorner's review against another edition
3.0
IQ "I know that violence is change that occurs too quickly. No conflict is ever solved because of it-only suppressed. But violence makes even less sense when it weakens a community's ability to respond to powerful interests that are reshaping its relationship to place" (173)
The first time I became familiar with Wendy S. Walters was when I read her essay 'Lonely in America' in Jesmyn Ward's The Fire This Time. I liked it but it didn't captivate me and I feel much the same about this essay collection. I did not mind the mixing of fiction and non-fiction/memoir but I did very much mind not knowing when historical tidbits were shared and not knowing right away if they were true or not. It's an odd decision to make when footnotes are used for certain historical moments or quotes but not all. At the same time I couldn't just assume the lack of footnotes meant it was purely fictional. Thus I would end up having to look up the mention (for example the plane of prisoners that disappeared) which took me out of the essay, much to my annoyance.
While it's not a smooth read, this collection has some quirks that keep it fresh, such as "Norway" and "Procedural". These were very enjoyable and left me with a lot to ponder to make sure I fully grasped all the author wanted to achieve. But I wouldn't agree with a majority of reviews that cite her strength in writing about place, the only city I felt she fully immersed us in was New York (specifically Manhattanville) and the country of Norway but her essays on Cleveland, Chicago and DC were lacking. Although she does spend a lot of time in the Northeast and I did really enjoy those self-reflections and study of the racial nuances and racism of New England. And the autobiographical focus is well-done, it didn't read as navel-gazing but smart introspection.
I would recommend this essay collection though if only because Margo Jefferson wrote a blurb for it and that woman gives me life. A weighty grouping of essays and fiction, making it hard to categorize (which is not a criticism) and extremely unique. These writings cover a variety of topics from gentrification to Hurricane Katrina to relationships and it all manages to fit together and move the collection forward.
Other favorite quotes;
"I have never been particularly interested in slavery, perhaps because it's such an obvious fact of my family's history. We know where we were enslaved in America, but we don't know much else about our specific conditions. The fact that I am descended from slaves is hard to acknowledge on a day-to-day basis, because slavery does not fit with my self-image. Perhaps this is because I am pretty certain I would not have survived it. [....] I resist thinking about slavery because I want to avoid the overwhelming feeling that comes from trying to conceive of the terror, violence, and indignity of it" (1-2). This quote is so me, I was thrilled to identify so strongly with Walters right out the gate but that feeling didn't last the entirety. But that's ok!
"Those of us who had been through a marriage asked why so much time was spent defining what marriage wasn't-when no one could say for certain what it was." (116)
The first time I became familiar with Wendy S. Walters was when I read her essay 'Lonely in America' in Jesmyn Ward's The Fire This Time. I liked it but it didn't captivate me and I feel much the same about this essay collection. I did not mind the mixing of fiction and non-fiction/memoir but I did very much mind not knowing when historical tidbits were shared and not knowing right away if they were true or not. It's an odd decision to make when footnotes are used for certain historical moments or quotes but not all. At the same time I couldn't just assume the lack of footnotes meant it was purely fictional. Thus I would end up having to look up the mention (for example the plane of prisoners that disappeared) which took me out of the essay, much to my annoyance.
While it's not a smooth read, this collection has some quirks that keep it fresh, such as "Norway" and "Procedural". These were very enjoyable and left me with a lot to ponder to make sure I fully grasped all the author wanted to achieve. But I wouldn't agree with a majority of reviews that cite her strength in writing about place, the only city I felt she fully immersed us in was New York (specifically Manhattanville) and the country of Norway but her essays on Cleveland, Chicago and DC were lacking. Although she does spend a lot of time in the Northeast and I did really enjoy those self-reflections and study of the racial nuances and racism of New England. And the autobiographical focus is well-done, it didn't read as navel-gazing but smart introspection.
I would recommend this essay collection though if only because Margo Jefferson wrote a blurb for it and that woman gives me life. A weighty grouping of essays and fiction, making it hard to categorize (which is not a criticism) and extremely unique. These writings cover a variety of topics from gentrification to Hurricane Katrina to relationships and it all manages to fit together and move the collection forward.
Other favorite quotes;
"I have never been particularly interested in slavery, perhaps because it's such an obvious fact of my family's history. We know where we were enslaved in America, but we don't know much else about our specific conditions. The fact that I am descended from slaves is hard to acknowledge on a day-to-day basis, because slavery does not fit with my self-image. Perhaps this is because I am pretty certain I would not have survived it. [....] I resist thinking about slavery because I want to avoid the overwhelming feeling that comes from trying to conceive of the terror, violence, and indignity of it" (1-2). This quote is so me, I was thrilled to identify so strongly with Walters right out the gate but that feeling didn't last the entirety. But that's ok!
"Those of us who had been through a marriage asked why so much time was spent defining what marriage wasn't-when no one could say for certain what it was." (116)
heatherjones's review
4.0
This book came to me a little inexplicably, in a package sent by author Daniel Handler, months after I'd found the secret application to his vaguely described 'postal club' hidden on his web site, filled it out, mailed it with a stamp (and how often do I mail anything with a stamp?), and then forgotten about it completely.
The surprise and mystery of the whole thing worked really well with the book itself, which blends the real and the unreal in unexpected and rich and complicated ways. The experiences of being black, female, American, lonely, afraid, displaced... they're mixed and remixed and I'm closing the book feeling like I just had a really weird dream I can't quite remember.
The surprise and mystery of the whole thing worked really well with the book itself, which blends the real and the unreal in unexpected and rich and complicated ways. The experiences of being black, female, American, lonely, afraid, displaced... they're mixed and remixed and I'm closing the book feeling like I just had a really weird dream I can't quite remember.
More...