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A review by carlyxdeexx
Ayiti by Roxane Gay
4.0
Managed to get this at BEA this year—definitely the book I was happiest about snagging. Roxane Gay’s one of my favorite writers, and the first book I read by her was AN UNTAMED STATE. These stories are evocative of that novel’s themes and it’s style, and one of the stories in particular seems to be a seed of that larger work. To be clear, this collection was published before the novel, and is just now being re-released with a new (lovely) cover.
The stories are very short, short enough to make you want more from them in a greedy sort of way. The writing is evocative of prose poetry. I’ve always liked Gay’s depictions of sex and sexuality—there are stories here that showcase her talent for that. I’d be happy to read this again and could probably re-devour it in moments. It’s at once a personal and political collection—direct connections are drawn and redrawn between the two in each story, feeding into each other. The political is seen intimately, as it is often seen by those it affects immediately instead of from a spectator’s distance. The intimacy reveals nuance often missed, and we could always do with more nuance.
The stories are very short, short enough to make you want more from them in a greedy sort of way. The writing is evocative of prose poetry. I’ve always liked Gay’s depictions of sex and sexuality—there are stories here that showcase her talent for that. I’d be happy to read this again and could probably re-devour it in moments. It’s at once a personal and political collection—direct connections are drawn and redrawn between the two in each story, feeding into each other. The political is seen intimately, as it is often seen by those it affects immediately instead of from a spectator’s distance. The intimacy reveals nuance often missed, and we could always do with more nuance.