Reviews

What a book! The histories it's reconstructing (yes, reconstructing, remaking -- the methodological innovation just runs through and transforms the prose itself, which is just SO COOL) through these fragments of history (reconstructing the history of those who have to hide their trails, for whom being seen is through arrest records, subject: prisoner, criminal, prostitute, non-human, must have been such painstaking work) and then using present theory and concepts of self to fill out the selves that have been denied by those material traces -- and then also recognizing that that filling out of those selves isn't an attempt to 'pin down' people or speak for them, but to give them voice, to give them potential, to point out the way they smirk back at the camera and elude capture through questions -- to say, these people are *worth* asking about, but whether or not they'll answer will always be up to them -- all of this is to say, this book flits in and out of personal and political and the political intrusions into the personal, and it doesn't stop at the academic voices or the places where theory applies, and it doesn't treat the academic as if they're somehow at a remove from the whole situation, and I could write pages and pages (I have pages and pages of Overdrive annotations that I can't export bc I read this on a browser), and I'd venture to say this is a new *form* of speculative history that is itself a beautiful experiment. In any case, it's something to wonder about and return to, again and again and again.

jessmferguson's review against another edition

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slow-paced

4.0

meghanhoefling's review against another edition

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4.0

3.5/5

ugh i don't know maybe i just don't get it but i really didn't like this book! it felt like a lot of nothing. i appreciate and respect the approach of giving a voice to the voiceless, but it didn't feel as impactful as i wanted it to. i wanted more realness, more facts, more context, less use of the word "chorine." the writing felt clunky and repetitive, and quite frankly, obvious. i also wished the pictures had captions.

just one quote:

"Beauty is not a luxury; rather it is a way of creating possibility in the space of enclosure, a radical art of subsistence, an embrace of our terribleness, a transfiguration of the given. It is a will to adorn, a proclivity for the baroque, and a love of too much."

wildgurl's review against another edition

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5.0

Beautifully written prose, I really enjoyed reading these stories of black lives that have been looking for hope, and a sense of belonging in this world. The search for freedom has been a dark and troubling part of our history. Embracing the lives and feelings of the early 1900's New York Harlem, San Juan Hill and Tenement House Law, and the riots that ensued, are pieces of history that are important and very hard to reckon with.
With the wish and promise of a different, better life, generations of families have lived in conditions less than humane. This is essential reading, the stories are rich and deep, resonating with the one thing we all have in common......a wish to live a free and happy life.
I look for more from this wise and enthralling author.

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