Open City Review

Title: Open City
Author: Teju Cole
Publisher: Random House

Blurb: Along the streets of Manhattan, a young Nigerian doctor doing his residency wanders aimlessly. The walks meet a need for Julius: they are a release from the tightly regulated mental environment of work, and they give him the opportunity to process his relationships, his recent breakup with his girlfriend, his present, his past.

But it is not only a physical landscape he covers; Julius crisscrosses social territory as well, encountering people from different cultures and classes who will provide insight on his journey—which takes him to Brussels, to the Nigeria of his youth, and into the most unrecognizable facets of his own soul.

Me: A recommended read from my AMAZING English teacher...but not sure how to feel about it. Nothing like I've read before, that's for sure.

A Lucky Man Review

Title: A Lucky Man
Author: Jamel Brinkley
Publisher: Graywolf Press

Blurb: In the nine expansive, searching stories of A Lucky Man, fathers and sons attempt to salvage relationships with friends and family members and confront mistakes made in the past. An imaginative young boy from the Bronx goes swimming with his group from day camp at a backyard pool in the suburbs, and faces the effects of power and privilege in ways he can barely grasp. A teen intent on proving himself a man through the all-night revel of J’Ouvert can’t help but look out for his impressionable younger brother. A pair of college boys on the prowl follow two girls home from a party and have to own the uncomfortable truth of their desires. 

Jamel Brinkley’s stories, in a debut that announces the arrival of a significant new voice, reflect the tenderness and vulnerability of black men and boys whose hopes sometimes betray them, especially in a world shaped by race, gender, and class―where luck may be the greatest fiction of all.

Me: This is the first short story collection I've savored and adored (and possibly the first that I made it all the way through). It's delicate but unapologetic and so incredibly written. 

Reading Eat, Pray, Love & A Case for Easy Reads

 I'm 12 years late to the party and buzz surrounding this book and probably 15-20 years under the target age. In fact, if I hadn't heard so much about Elizabeth Gilbert and then hadn't seen this book at a used book store for a dollar, I wouldn't have picked it up at least for another decade, or maybe never. So why did I read it? And what'd I get out of it? Why am I bothering to talk about it here?

D.C. and Writing (Again!): Summer So Far

Hey! After I've been gone for what seems like a while, I just wanted to update you on this summer and everything that's happened. It's been a busy month or so, and I truly feel so lucky to say that I've been able to make so many new friends and memories. 

The Sun Also Rises Review

Title: The Sun Also Rises
Author: Ernest Hemingway
Genre: Classic

Blurb: The quintessential novel of the Lost Generation, The Sun Also Rises is one of Ernest Hemingway's masterpieces and a classic example of his spare but powerful writing style. A poignant look at the disillusionment and angst of the post-World War I generation, the novel introduces two of Hemingway's most unforgettable characters: Jake Barnes and Lady Brett Ashley. The story follows the flamboyant Brett and the hapless Jake as they journey from the wild nightlife of 1920s Paris to the brutal bullfighting rings of Spain with a motley group of expatriates. It is an age of moral bankruptcy, spiritual dissolution, unrealized love, and vanishing illusions. First published in 1926, The Sun Also Rises helped to establish Hemingway as one of the greatest writers of the twentieth century.

Me: Maybe the first Hemingway I truly enjoyed. Brisk, unapologetic, and surprisingly meaningful.

Talkin' About: Is Art Separate from the Artist? (and Junot Diaz)

Just a few weeks ago, I began reading This is How You Lose Her by Junot Diaz, one of the most famous American writers alive today. I wasn't thinking of much other than the excitement at finally reading a book by a name I'd heard everywhere. But my choice happened to be eerily timely. 

Looking up Diaz's name, I found this New Yorker article published last month where Diaz discussed the effects of trauma and distress of childhood sexual assault on his life. It was a powerful, emotional article that showed how the trauma had repercussions all throughout his life. He mentioned that he continued to cheat on his partners, despite knowing how bad it was. Reading the article, it was crazy how much his personal experiences spoke to the fiction I was reading.

The God of Small Things Review

Title: The God of Small Things
Author: Arundhati Roy
Genre: Magical Realism, Fiction
Publisher: Random House

Blurb: The year is 1969. In the state of Kerala, on the southernmost tip of India, fraternal twins Esthappen and Rahel fashion a childhood for themselves in the shade of the wreck that is their family. Their lonely, lovely mother, Ammu, (who loves by night the man her children love by day), fled an abusive marriage to live with their blind grandmother, Mammachi (who plays Handel on her violin), their beloved uncle Chacko (Rhodes scholar, pickle baron, radical Marxist, bottom-pincher), and their enemy, Baby Kochamma (ex-nun and incumbent grandaunt). When Chacko's English ex-wife brings their daughter for a Christmas visit, the twins learn that things can change in a day, that lives can twist into new, ugly shapes, even cease forever, beside their river...

Me: Still so thankful I got to read this in a high school English class. Refreshing and heartbreaking. It breaks the boundaries of the novel again and again.