Monthly Archives: February 2023

I had very mixed feelings about this book. On the one hand, the prose is great — it really gets under your skin in a very visceral (and sometimes pleasurable) way — and there are some really interesting observations, and ways of bringing different facets of a topic together. A lot of the essays reallyContinueContinue reading “Girlhood, Melissa Febos”

It’s sort of interesting that this book is not better, because the story has so much promise — a young, fairly naive, Mexican woman goes to Cuba in 1970 to teach ballet — and the author seems to be a skilled writer who knows a lot about Latin American politics (and writes wonderfully, and vividly,ContinueContinue reading “Dancing with Cuba, Alma Guillermoprieto, tr. Esther Allen”

I saw the movie over a week ago, but I’m still thinking about it. It’s a travesty that Sarah Polley didn’t get a Best Director nomination for it. The movie is beautiful — a really moving portrayal of women being in community together. I was just finishing reading Adrienne Maree Brown’s Emergent Strategy when IContinueContinue reading “Women Talking”

This book was absolutely incredible, to be placed alongside writing by Alexievich, or Herrera, on historical atrocity, and the attempt to find the words for it. This one stands apart for its interest in dreams, and its uncanny mythic quality.I’d be curious to know what my Turkish friends think of it though, especially the wayContinueContinue reading “The Wounded Age and Eastern Tales, Ferit Edgü, tr. Aron Aji”