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A review by bookstolivewith
Thick: And Other Essays by Tressie McMillan Cottom
emotional
funny
informative
sad
tense
medium-paced
5.0
“There is not a single global, national, or local condition to which black women’s intellectual, spiritual, and emotional intelligences cannot be trusted to bring greater clarity.”
Thick by Tressie McMillian Cottom is a must-read collection of essays about a Black woman’s experience with academia, healthcare, and social culture in the United States, and how those realms (and many others) intersect with race.
Here’s the thing: Cottom is unbelievably intelligent, keenly observant and a truly wonderful writer. She writes about such heavy and important topics while still maintaining an element of fun, or at least dark humor, and they’re so readable, even if you have to reread a paragraph or two a few times to grasp the full meaning — it just makes you sit with the information in a powerful way. It was such a pleasure to read this collection, despite how many of these essays had me pausing to breathe and blink away tears at the sheer honesty of the experiences Cottom laid out.
In order of their appearance, the essays that I personally found most impactful (although they are all wonderful): Dying To Be Competent (TW: miscarriage), Know Your Whites, and Black Girlhood, Interrupted (TW: sexual assault). These are essays that will stick with me for a long time.
I highly encourage getting a copy of this one! For me, this is definitely worth buying because there’s so much to underline and it’s a reread waiting to happen.
Thick by Tressie McMillian Cottom is a must-read collection of essays about a Black woman’s experience with academia, healthcare, and social culture in the United States, and how those realms (and many others) intersect with race.
Here’s the thing: Cottom is unbelievably intelligent, keenly observant and a truly wonderful writer. She writes about such heavy and important topics while still maintaining an element of fun, or at least dark humor, and they’re so readable, even if you have to reread a paragraph or two a few times to grasp the full meaning — it just makes you sit with the information in a powerful way. It was such a pleasure to read this collection, despite how many of these essays had me pausing to breathe and blink away tears at the sheer honesty of the experiences Cottom laid out.
In order of their appearance, the essays that I personally found most impactful (although they are all wonderful): Dying To Be Competent (TW: miscarriage), Know Your Whites, and Black Girlhood, Interrupted (TW: sexual assault). These are essays that will stick with me for a long time.
I highly encourage getting a copy of this one! For me, this is definitely worth buying because there’s so much to underline and it’s a reread waiting to happen.