Author Archives: Kasia Bartoszynska

Sometimes you pick a book because you’re in the mood for a specific vibe, and if the vibe you’re looking for is idealistic priest and his angry teenaged daughter are traveling across Argentina when car troubles lead them to an encounter with a gruff mechanic named Gringo and the boy he has taken in —ContinueContinue reading “The Wind that Lays Waste, Selva Almada, tr. Chris Andrews”

This was devastating, crushingly so. But also amazing — fascinating in the dreamy, surreal way the story unfolded, gradually drawing you closer to the horror. And this aspect is especially interesting in relation to her other books, and this meta-story of an author and a filmmaker. Very curious to see what her next book willContinueContinue reading “We Do Not Part, Han Kang, tr. E. Yaewon and Paige Aniyah Morris”

What I appreciate about Ndiaye’s books is that it feels like literally anything could happen — her novels teeter fascinatingly between real, surreal, magical in this kind of liminal zone that scrambles your mode of reading. How are you meant to approach this thing — as symbolic? fantastical? I think this is what makes herContinueContinue reading “The Witch, Marie Ndiaye, tr. Jordan Stump”

“What purer expression of power than to say: I know. I know but will do nothing so long as it benefits me. Only later when it ceases to benefit me will I proclaim in great heaving sobs my grief that such a thing was ever allowed to happen. And you, all of you, even theContinueContinue reading “One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This, Omar El Akkad”

I neglected to post about this back in June, what with the chaos of summer starting and travel, etc, but it’s incredible. Hardly a light read, being a chronicle of a government massacre of innocent civilians, but it is nonetheless both riveting and grimly beautiful. I had the added benefit of getting to watch aContinueContinue reading “Massacre in Mexico, Elena Poniatowska”

I stayed up through my entire transatlantic flight to gobble up this fantastic novel about two trans women, a high school teacher and the student who becomes a kind of mentor for her in transition. I don’t know if I would have sobbed as much if I’d been on solid ground, I’m very susceptible toContinueContinue reading “Woodworking, Emily St. James”

My kid is a big fan of Raina Telgemeier, so I figured I should do my due dilligence, and I’m happy to report that this is just as good as people say — a memoir about getting A LOT of dental work that is also about feeling self-conscious and figuring out the social world ofContinueContinue reading “Smile, Raina Telgemeier and Everything is Teeth, Evie Wyld”

I was surprised by how much I didn’t like Aftermath. It’s funny, I sort of enjoy Cusk’s unlikable protagonists when they’re fictional, but it turns out that her non-fiction voice is not so different and rather annoying (though I don’t remember this bothering me in her motherhood book, maybe because I found it more relatable?).ContinueContinue reading “Aftermath and No Fault”

Knisley’s account of going on a cruise with her fairly infirm grandparents — basically a diary of care-taking. It’s perhaps most interesting for what it does not say? There’s very little story, other than the reckoning of time (which is not that minute, either), plus interspersed entries from her grandfather’s wartime diary. Although Knisley describesContinueContinue reading “Displacement: a Travelogue, Lucy Knisley”

“This is a treatise on trans ambivalence,” proclaims a sentence in the Foreword. As the author explains, part of the work of transphobia is to consistently undermine or outright deny the reality of trans people, requiring that they reply with absolute certainty — but what in human life do we know with absolute certainty?? (Nothing,ContinueContinue reading “None of the Above, Travis Alabanza”