A review by chelseamartinez
Known and Strange Things: Essays by Teju Cole

4.0

Really great book of essays in three parts with some overlap, since there are reading/art recommendations interspersed along the way and photo references for more than just the photo section. As in Open City, even though that's a novel, it is exhilarating to follow Cole to random places (geographically and intellectually) and I think the progression of the essays is great, coming closer to "home" and what Cole may be most famous for on the internet towards the end; it's nice to see him approach certain cities or writers in multiple essays from different angles
***
Natives on the Boat
Always Returning
A Conversation with Aleksander Hemon - Here I learned that Fiction and Non-Fiction distinctions are not as important outside the United States!
Wangechi Mutu
An African Caesar
Red Shift
Portrait of a Lady
A True Picture of Black Skin
Gueorgui Pinkhassov
Google's Macchia & The Atlas of Affect - Here I learned about Dina Kelberman's The Simpsons project
Death in the Browser Tab
Far Away from Here & Shadows in Sao Paolo- Here I learned about Heimweh, and I felt happy because I read this already in the NYT magazine, but that is beside the point.
Home Strange Home
The Reprint - only mention of his wife?
A Reader's War & What It Is & The White Saviour Industrial Complex
Bad Laws & A Piece of the Wall
Brazilian Earth & Angels in Winter - Who is Beth?