Here are some condensed thoughts about a few books I recently read for which I don't anticipate posting a full review (1).
The Beautiful Struggle by Ta-Nehisi Coates (April 2020 - book notes)
Around a year and a half ago, I wrote about Coates's collection, We Were Eight Years in Power, and noted his insistence that honest writing is constantly threatened by cliches and truisms. It was fascinating to see his commitment to that concept in The Beautiful Struggle, his 2008 memoir about growing up in Black in Baltimore. Coates writes like someone who accidentally set his dictionary on fire and is trying to get as much down before it defines ash; I appreciated the instinct given his distinct style, perspective, and voice. This read at times like a graphic novel thanks to its searing focus on specific moments and their associated feelings; I related to that representation better than I would have to a more linear retelling, which I often finds distances me from the experience of the author.
Lost Cat by Caroline Paul (June 2020 - no book notes)
I originally planned to read this in December as part of my annual rereading month; when the pandemic hit I decided it was necessary to roll out an old favorite ahead of schedule. Wendy MacNaughton's illustrations are a delightful companion to the main story, which is mostly a hilarious account of Paul's increasingly frantic quest to understand where her cat went when he disappeared for a few weeks. If you want to get a sense of the book, I suggest checking out this review from Brain Pickings, or getting a cat.
The Apology by Eve Ensler (June 2020 - book notes)
Decades after suffering years of sexual and physical abuse at the hands of her father, Ensler imagines the apology she never heard in this indomitable work of empathy, imagination, and courage. It's the longest one hundred and twenty-eight pages I've read this year but likely the most important; I think the following quote from this review sums it up:
Talking to me from her home in New York, she [Ensler] breaks down briefly as she tries to describe just how different the world suddenly feels [after writing the book].
“I don’t even know what this place is going to be now,” she says, her tears turning to laughter. “My heart feels so open in a way it hasn’t been able to be open. It’s like driving a new car — I don’t know how to drive this car!”
I was having a hard time pulling together my thoughts about how this book might fit into a larger context but I think the new car analogy steered me in the right direction; I've seen something like The Apology before, but I've never seen anything like this book. I think many writers will someday look back to this work and credit it for demonstrating yet another dimension of the craft's potential to help us heal the wounds from yesterday, make the most of today, and envision a better tomorrow.
Footnotes
1. Is it that hard to post a few hundred words per book?
It's not always a question of difficulty. There are some books for which I don't have much to add beyond a comment or two in reference to an interesting quote, idea, or argument. In other cases, the book simply defies review, or at least in the sense I approach the task. The most common (and relevant) reason I skip the full review is time - each reading review is one less post about something else, and these days I think it's a better use of my time to write on topics that are not explicitly tied to a book.
