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A review by champ81
Sometimes I Trip On How Happy We Could Be by Nichole Perkins
4.0
The essays in Sometimes I Trip on How Happy We Could Be add up to something fascinating--an exploration of power and identity, perhaps, primarily through the lens of romantic and sexual relationships. Organized differently, and with a more overt attempt to pull themes or straightforward narratives from her life, this might have read like a memoir. Instead, it loops, curls back on itself, resists chronological ordering or linearity. Since Nichole's relationship to power isn't straightforward, this structure makes sense.
Here, power includes a variety of ways in which Nichole claims agency: exploring her sexual desires; establishing and refining standards for romantic relationships; setting boundaries, and naming the ways in which those boundaries are transgressed. She introduces other Black women and their relationship to control and power (for instance: Janet Jackson, her mother channeling Janet to send messages to Nichole's abusive father, and her own adoption of Janet's uniform), and probes at the ways in which Black women are seen as both hypersexual and overly picky, too much and not enough. By the end of the collection, it's clear that Nichole is still in process, still figuring herself and her desires out, but she speaks with a blend of vulnerability and confidence that shows how much she's learned about herself through the experiences she details in these essays.
Prince, Kermit and Miss Piggy, Niles Crane, Booth and Brennan of Bones, and more all provide context and humor for these essays, although my favorite might the one in which she moves away from the pop culture references and leans into more figurative language ("How to Build a Man-Made Tourist Attraction").
I received an advance reader copy from Netgalley for an honest review.
Here, power includes a variety of ways in which Nichole claims agency: exploring her sexual desires; establishing and refining standards for romantic relationships; setting boundaries, and naming the ways in which those boundaries are transgressed. She introduces other Black women and their relationship to control and power (for instance: Janet Jackson, her mother channeling Janet to send messages to Nichole's abusive father, and her own adoption of Janet's uniform), and probes at the ways in which Black women are seen as both hypersexual and overly picky, too much and not enough. By the end of the collection, it's clear that Nichole is still in process, still figuring herself and her desires out, but she speaks with a blend of vulnerability and confidence that shows how much she's learned about herself through the experiences she details in these essays.
Prince, Kermit and Miss Piggy, Niles Crane, Booth and Brennan of Bones, and more all provide context and humor for these essays, although my favorite might the one in which she moves away from the pop culture references and leans into more figurative language ("How to Build a Man-Made Tourist Attraction").
I received an advance reader copy from Netgalley for an honest review.