A review by tarae
Ordinary Light by Tracy K. Smith

4.0

Tracy K Smith's memoir is gorgeously written, an assessment that should surprise absolutely no one. It was a joy to read for the language, slow-moving, slow-building as it was. The slowness of it at times turned into boredom, or at its worst, for me, into a deep sense of alienation. Alienation in treading with Smith the waters of a comfortably upper middle-class, happy childhood while the memories of my own violent, turbulent childhood lurked in the back of my mind. Smith still gives a beautiful, complex portrait of the too-short relationship she had with her mother, and a beautiful, often painful exploration of how it felt to grow up Black in suburban 70s/80s Californian, and for that I'm glad to have read it.