Displacement: a Travelogue, Lucy Knisley
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 describes…
None of the Above, Travis Alabanza
“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,…
Perfection and The Anthropologists
I had lofty ambitions, like two months ago, of writing a proper essay on these two novels, which are not exactly the same book but they sure are close. Both are novels about a couple in their 20s living in a city in another country — in The Anthropologists, the city and their countries of…
Erupcja
I knew almost nothing about this movie except that it was Charli xcx in Warsaw, which is where I’m from, so obviously I had to go. And right from the jump I was pleasantly surprised to find that the credits were in Polish, as was the voice-over narration, and all of the initial dialogue. It…
On the Calculation of Volume, vl 1, Solvej Balle, tr. Barbara Haveland
People have been recommending this to me for awhile (for years I guess, jeeze) and I finally picked it up. I was a little skeptical — the story of a woman stuck in a strange time loop, reliving a single day, didn’t seem very appealing (and there are 7 volumes of this?!). But I was…
Threads: From the Refugee Crisis, Kate Evans
I read this weeks ago, but it has stayed with me because it feels like a desperate attempt to bear witness; to register what is happening amid rapid changes and the apparently utter indifference of the rest of the world. Evans documented the conditions in refugee camps in Northern France in 2015 and 2016 (they…
Sense and Sensibility, Jane Austen and Emma Thompson
I guess it was almost two months ago now that we did this absolutely wonderful Zoom bookclub with some IC alumni, reading Sense and Sensibility together. For me it was an especially fantastic experience, because I was leading it with my dear colleague Hugh Egan, and we would meet up beforehand to have our own…
Know My Name, Chanel Miller
My friend Deidre recommended this to me, and it really is extraordinary. Chanel Miller writes so beautifully, and weaves a narrative so skillfully, it’s truly a marvel. She tells the story of her experiences as a defendant in a sexual assault trial — a process that spanned over a year, two if you count the…
In memoriam, Roger Porter
This isn’t a book or movie review, but I just wrote it out as a facebook post and felt like I dunno, I needed to put it somewhere else too. I happened to be looking at the Reed magazine online and found, to my utter dismay, an obituary for one of my favorite professors. I…
Like a Mule Bringing Ice Cream to the Sun, Sarah Ladipo Manyika
I read this on the train yesterday with great pleasure. An understated story about a 75 year old Nigerian woman, a retired English professor, living in the Bay Area and confronting the encroaching limits of her independence. It’s unexpectedly panoramic, weaving in brief asides from neighbors, friends, passersby that give you glimpses of their various…
Kasia Reads 