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A review by pageglue
Known and Strange Things by Teju Cole
challenging
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
relaxing
slow-paced
5.0
After just a few pages into this book, I had decided that Teju Cole was an auto-buy author for me. Known and Strange Things is an essay collection divided into 4 sections: Reading Things (book and poetry reviews), Seeing Things (art, photography and film reviews and observations), Being There (travel writing/essays on political situations in certain places), and an Epilogue.
Cole is a wickedly good writer. Every single essay ranged from good to very excellent. He is also a photographer, and his educational background is in art history. He was born in America but grew up in Nigeria: “I was born American, but I also had to learn to become American… My understanding of American experience has mostly been from the point of view of a recent African immigrant.” He writes with keen insight and compassion, and he has an impressively broad and deep knowledge of literature and art which he draws from and incorporates into his writing with the fluid grace of a rower’s oar. Cole and I have very different tastes in books and media, but I loved reading what he was interested in and why. His reviews left me thinking, ‘I don’t think I’d enjoy that book/movie, but man that was a great review.’ I loved most his writings on photography and on the artist as curator. He also introduced me to a lot of great artists/photographers and their work has really stayed with me.
Cole is a wickedly good writer. Every single essay ranged from good to very excellent. He is also a photographer, and his educational background is in art history. He was born in America but grew up in Nigeria: “I was born American, but I also had to learn to become American… My understanding of American experience has mostly been from the point of view of a recent African immigrant.” He writes with keen insight and compassion, and he has an impressively broad and deep knowledge of literature and art which he draws from and incorporates into his writing with the fluid grace of a rower’s oar. Cole and I have very different tastes in books and media, but I loved reading what he was interested in and why. His reviews left me thinking, ‘I don’t think I’d enjoy that book/movie, but man that was a great review.’ I loved most his writings on photography and on the artist as curator. He also introduced me to a lot of great artists/photographers and their work has really stayed with me.