A review by lelis
The Argonauts by Maggie Nelson

3.5

Maggie Nelson has no doubt carved herself a nice space in the literary sphere, but I would caution against anybody lauding this work as the completely evocative / genre-challenging work that many have in the past. Nelson's desire to maintain a queered anti-capitalist identity alongside such remarkable commercial success can at times be difficult to swallow, and her prose, when it makes an attempt to lean towards critical theory, feels passive at best and entirely dismissive at worst. A nice read, but I would caution against anybody using it to supplement any philosophy or critical theory text. This is a fast read, and a fine companion to someone who is willing to not take Nelson entirely at her word. At best, I can praise Nelson for creating a piece which might encourage someone to encounter the many authors that she attempts to make reference to. I often found myself wishing that she had stuck to either memoir or theory. (I know that that is largely against the point of the genre itself, I just think that this text does not do it particularly well.)