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A review by jackwwang
Known and Strange Things: Essays by Teju Cole
5.0
Good essay collections, unlike good novels, make me want to write more. Teju Cole's essays are the shining example of why one does not write "after you've thought things through... [but rather] you write to think things through." If only... my thinking things through can be so thoughtful and provoking as Cole's thinking things through.
In a lot of ways I see in Cole a kindred sole: his affection for cities, with their rich deep histories, efficient use of resources, cultivation of tolerance. His sensibility towards travel, the desire to dress well on flights, talk to cab drivers, and care to keep one's imagination open when arriving in new destinations. His fondness and
Cole's craft for the written sentence and paragraph is noticeably wondrous. To convey that a series of images he described do add up to a theme, he sneaks in a miracle of a sentence: "If you set enough tangents around a circle, you begin to re-create the shape of the circle itself." I think I'm in love.
Perhaps the most remarkable, is that Cole has the rare talent, through his essays, to actually change minds. I've only felt this once before, with the essays of David Foster Wallace. "The White Savior Industrial Complex" is an astonishing compelling piece of writing that challenges to the core the way I thought about the knee jerk charity impulse I share with most other North Americans. "Perplexed, perplexed" is, if not persuasive, just an incredibly compelling piece of writing about the deeply disturbing nature of mob violence. Cole's thoughts STICK with you, through good craftsmanship, incredible imagery, and let me happily acknowledge, the depth and richness of the thoughts themselves. Cole's thinking about the world is worth knowing, so read this book.
In a lot of ways I see in Cole a kindred sole: his affection for cities, with their rich deep histories, efficient use of resources, cultivation of tolerance. His sensibility towards travel, the desire to dress well on flights, talk to cab drivers, and care to keep one's imagination open when arriving in new destinations. His fondness and
Cole's craft for the written sentence and paragraph is noticeably wondrous. To convey that a series of images he described do add up to a theme, he sneaks in a miracle of a sentence: "If you set enough tangents around a circle, you begin to re-create the shape of the circle itself." I think I'm in love.
Perhaps the most remarkable, is that Cole has the rare talent, through his essays, to actually change minds. I've only felt this once before, with the essays of David Foster Wallace. "The White Savior Industrial Complex" is an astonishing compelling piece of writing that challenges to the core the way I thought about the knee jerk charity impulse I share with most other North Americans. "Perplexed, perplexed" is, if not persuasive, just an incredibly compelling piece of writing about the deeply disturbing nature of mob violence. Cole's thoughts STICK with you, through good craftsmanship, incredible imagery, and let me happily acknowledge, the depth and richness of the thoughts themselves. Cole's thinking about the world is worth knowing, so read this book.