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A review by lolocole
I'm a Fan by Sheena Patel
challenging
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
The most captivating part of this book (fittingly) was its exploration and interrogation of attention. Attention as a commodity, a necessity, a weapon, an aphrodisiac, a tool… especially in the midst of conversations about the attention and social capital our society confers upon celebrity and the #blockout movement, these questions feel taut with political, social, and economic consequences.
The most jarring parts of this book were the small windows into the narrator’s life outside of her incessant thoughts about “the man she wants to be with” and “the woman she’s obsessed with.”
I am so interested in what gets explicitly named in this book (the woman and her child, the dog Mocha, restaurants she visits, the businesses she wants to buy from) vs what remains nameless (herself, her boyfriend, the two characters she can’t (and doesn’t want to) escape from).
A customary collection of quotes to ruminate on:
“We think explaining ourselves or justifying our existence isn’t too heavy a price to pay to gain entry through those gates where liberal artsy white people will tokenize us as a symbol of their ideological process…” (33).
“… I want to destroy the hand that ticks, one comfortable second to the next” (72).
“I will be something to show off owning” (80).
“Where do you attain the confidence and the certainty to impose and expand yourself and your tastes onto four walls of a room and what does it say about you when you can’t do this?” (101).
“All I see is the disinheritance and the bloodshed which runs through the land to have made it a quiet and safe place for her, a place of nourishment and sustenance- a place of abject grief” (117).
“I do not have the patience to sit in the quiet. I want whatever it is to reveal itself to me now” (126).
“I am performing all the time, performing being myself, what is myself, who is me” (150).
The most jarring parts of this book were the small windows into the narrator’s life outside of her incessant thoughts about “the man she wants to be with” and “the woman she’s obsessed with.”
I am so interested in what gets explicitly named in this book (the woman and her child, the dog Mocha, restaurants she visits, the businesses she wants to buy from) vs what remains nameless (herself, her boyfriend, the two characters she can’t (and doesn’t want to) escape from).
A customary collection of quotes to ruminate on:
“We think explaining ourselves or justifying our existence isn’t too heavy a price to pay to gain entry through those gates where liberal artsy white people will tokenize us as a symbol of their ideological process…” (33).
“… I want to destroy the hand that ticks, one comfortable second to the next” (72).
“I will be something to show off owning” (80).
“Where do you attain the confidence and the certainty to impose and expand yourself and your tastes onto four walls of a room and what does it say about you when you can’t do this?” (101).
“All I see is the disinheritance and the bloodshed which runs through the land to have made it a quiet and safe place for her, a place of nourishment and sustenance- a place of abject grief” (117).
“I do not have the patience to sit in the quiet. I want whatever it is to reveal itself to me now” (126).
“I am performing all the time, performing being myself, what is myself, who is me” (150).