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Jordan Kisner’s memoir Thin Places is a series of essays about identity, religion, immigration, life and death, and mental health. Each essay is deeply human and combines both factual information and her own personal perspective.
As a journalist, I really appreciated how Kisner’s writing is investigative but also relatable. As you read about topics you may not have had much knowledge about before (such as the intricacies of the Shaker community, or the Society of Martha Washington Pageant and Ball in Loredo, TX), you realize how these topics are lessons for life itself.
Kisner writes openly and candidly about her own struggles with cultural identity and mental health, and her openness about her experiences makes her writing that much more rich and influential.
I highly recommend this book!
As a journalist, I really appreciated how Kisner’s writing is investigative but also relatable. As you read about topics you may not have had much knowledge about before (such as the intricacies of the Shaker community, or the Society of Martha Washington Pageant and Ball in Loredo, TX), you realize how these topics are lessons for life itself.
Kisner writes openly and candidly about her own struggles with cultural identity and mental health, and her openness about her experiences makes her writing that much more rich and influential.
I highly recommend this book!
This is an excellent collection of essays about “thin places”—where boundaries are thin, where things are in flux, where you don’t feel settled. What a fascinating and relatable concept! Kisner gracefully covers everything from borders and history to religion and OCD, humbly searching for flares of happiness. Each piece is extraordinary, but my favorites were “Thin Places,” “Big Empty,” “A Theory of Immortality,” “Habitus,” and “The Other City.” I definitely want a copy of this when it comes out. Thanks, FSG and NetGalley, for the ARC.
This was both funny and deeply religious in unexpected places, but ultimately didn't impress me in any particular way.
emotional
mysterious
reflective
fast-paced
emotional
hopeful
informative
reflective
medium-paced
I struggled with this one a little bit. I wanted it to commit to following its threads further along their lengths; certain essays jolted to an abrupt end when I felt that they were just getting started, and their fragments didn’t always cohere into a whole where they made sense when seen all together. The expansive interiority of some essays, particularly the last two (which are excellent) constricts in others, and it’s not so much that I felt left without neat endings, but rather that I couldn’t see the complexity I thought I was being directed to. I *loved* the second-to-last essay on pathology/medical examination and the American refusal to integrate death into the rhythms of our daily lives, and I wanted more of its boldness throughout. I really thought this one was going to be a home run for me!
Of the many compliments I want to pay to this book, the highest is that it made me slow down. As much as I loved Jordan Kisner's writing and thinking, I couldn't gorge myself on it. Instead, I dipped my toes into her essays every few days, leaving always with something new to think about.
Kisner writes essays on places where boundaries seem to slip: Pop-up evangelical churches on beaches, public art institution, aggressively American debutante balls at border towns, the world of people who deal with dead bodies. What I loved about these essays is that they straddled the line of working out external and internal knowledge. There's always a point in the essay where Kisner inserts herself, unwaveringly honest, and wrestles with the complicated ideas she's seeing in the world.
I feel a kindred spirit with her, and I'm not sure why. The particulars of our identities and our lives are so different, but these essays felt like coming home in a way.
Without a doubt the best collection of essays I've read. I will be back for you, book.
Kisner writes essays on places where boundaries seem to slip: Pop-up evangelical churches on beaches, public art institution, aggressively American debutante balls at border towns, the world of people who deal with dead bodies. What I loved about these essays is that they straddled the line of working out external and internal knowledge. There's always a point in the essay where Kisner inserts herself, unwaveringly honest, and wrestles with the complicated ideas she's seeing in the world.
I feel a kindred spirit with her, and I'm not sure why. The particulars of our identities and our lives are so different, but these essays felt like coming home in a way.
Without a doubt the best collection of essays I've read. I will be back for you, book.
dark
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
So good to tap into my spiritual/contemplative side again. Definitely was triggering in places when she talked in depth about death and dying, but I made it through and would recommend.
Graphic: Death
reflective
medium-paced