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A review by emilyinherhead
Inciting Joy: Essays by Ross Gay
emotional
funny
hopeful
reflective
slow-paced
5.0
Inciting Joy is a collection of thoughtful, funny, meandering, earnest, digging-deep essays, each one about a particular source of joy—the garden, time, losing your phone, dancing, and falling apart, to name a few. I had the pleasure of hearing Ross speak at my local indie bookstore back in April, and I’m delighted to report that the warmth and care he exudes in person is fully there in his writing as well.
And the digressions! At this event, he was constantly interrupting himself, getting distracted, following tangents, and sharing related anecdotes before ultimately making his way back to the original point, and as someone who does the same thing in conversations (and in thought processes, let’s be real, the tendency doesn’t require another person’s presence to be true), I was utterly charmed. Well, the essays are the same way. There are tons of footnotes, some of them multiple pages long, and often an idea will wind its way through a few different seemingly-unrelated stories before looping back around to stick the landing—which it always does, in the end.
I could go on and on about this book. These essays made me want to break up with my phone (again), get my back yard into shape for a garden plot (finally), compose a list of favorite (existing) and most-longed-for (hypothetical) cover songs, create more art, and be less shy about dancing in public. I absolutely loved all of it. If poking around in the complexities of human emotion is your jam and you’re down to follow a kind-hearted genius down a rabbit hole or two along the way, I bet you will too.
And the digressions! At this event, he was constantly interrupting himself, getting distracted, following tangents, and sharing related anecdotes before ultimately making his way back to the original point, and as someone who does the same thing in conversations (and in thought processes, let’s be real, the tendency doesn’t require another person’s presence to be true), I was utterly charmed. Well, the essays are the same way. There are tons of footnotes, some of them multiple pages long, and often an idea will wind its way through a few different seemingly-unrelated stories before looping back around to stick the landing—which it always does, in the end.
I could go on and on about this book. These essays made me want to break up with my phone (again), get my back yard into shape for a garden plot (finally), compose a list of favorite (existing) and most-longed-for (hypothetical) cover songs, create more art, and be less shy about dancing in public. I absolutely loved all of it. If poking around in the complexities of human emotion is your jam and you’re down to follow a kind-hearted genius down a rabbit hole or two along the way, I bet you will too.