Walking in Manhattan, Wading in the Water
Staff Review Round-Up, 5/10/2018
Welcome to Literati Bookstore’s round-up of recent staff favorites, and an occasional place for useful links and news from around the literary web regarding upcoming events at the store.
Recent Staff Favorites in Hardcover
Barracoon: The Story of the Last “Black Cargo”, by Zora Neale Hurston
Published nearly sixty years after Hurston’s death, this lost book is more than just the life story of one of the last American slaves. This is a history of black literature in the 1930’s, of the historicization and ownership of black folklore, and the importance of language in the delivering a culture. It is about the “greatest cultural wealth on the continent.” What makes this work so special is the focus not on the life of the freed slave but rather the focus on their life before — memories of Africa, as well as the perspective of Hurston then, and her editor, now. Required reading. — Ashley
The Changeling (40th Anniversary Edition), by Joy Wiliams
This dark fairy tale exists in the space between dreaming and waking, that impossible-to-pin-down feeling of both confusion and deep knowing. Pearl is a fascinatingly unreliable protagonist, and her experiences in the liminal space of a nightmarish island explore childhood and motherhood in a way that seeps into the bones. — Kelsey
Wade in the Water: Poems, by Tracy K. Smith
Because it made me want to sing when I have no working concept of pitch. Because I reread certain line aloud in the hopes that their musicality might follow me on a stroll about town. Because it was an inquiry into whatever the hell it saw fit to inquire. Because its disbelief that horrendous realities can only be best explained with the shrug of the shoulders made me hopeful — oh so hopeful. Because its portrait of angels playing cards made me want to play cards. Because its series of letters demanding and lamenting the escape or hijacking of on’es fabricated or natural family members made my stomach churn and my eyes water. Because it reminded me that fragmentation can display both the divine and the inhuman within each of us. Nationhood, power, narrative, and play may at first useful when talking about this book, but upon touching the water with the entirety of my legs, I ask but one thing: that you, too, wade in, trace ripples, and recall that your splash is beautiful. — Bennet
…And in Paperback
Disoriental, by Negar Djavadi
Disoriental is an extraordinary novel brimming with stories of a woman’s identity born out of the turbulent clash of old and new cultures. And what a story it is! Born to politically active parents during a time of great upheaval in Iran, nothing about Kimia or her family life was typical. Revolution, displacement, fear and loss during her early life contributed to Kamia’s sense of being different. Now as an adult at the brink of a significant decision, one that others would condemn,Kamia turns to the reader and asks us to listen in order to understand. She tells us that Iranians use the power of words to feel alive, to forestall fear.They tell stories which open to reveal other stories so she begins with a family tale of old world Persia and then moves back and forth in time telling the stories that shaped her. The history, politics, cultural identity and family dynamics that fill these tales are woven together like a beautiful oriental rug that delights the eye.
Djavandi gives Kimia the voice of a singular storyteller whose words have the power to entrance and move you,the reader. — Sharon
Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk, by Kathleen Roony
Lillian Boxfish (and what a fabulous name for a character that is!) is the intrepid octogenarian of this smart and insightful novel by Kathleen Rooney. It is New Year’s Eve, 1984, and Lillian had got it into her head to trek all over Manhattan. Given her lack of fear at traversing the crime-ridden city, and her charming repartee with everyone she meets, you would think that confidence had never left her. But as she walks and reminisces, we learn the truth: her heartbreak when a betrayal is discovered; how she she had to give up her beloved job as the highest-paid woman ad writer at Macy’s when she married; and her disappointment at once being a widely-read poet whose work is now out-of-print. And yet, Lillian is still witty, kind, smart, and able to walk unassisted several miles on a cold December night. We should all be so lucky, at any age but especially at eight-five, to summon some of Lillian’s moxie and strength. — Jill
The Wife, by Meg Wolitzer
The heroine of Meg Wolitzer’s dagger-sharp novel is on a flight to Helsinki with her novelist husband when she decides to leave him. What follows is an equally gorgeous and grim meditation on fidelity, sexism, and the writing life, all spiked with a delicious wit that won me over immediately. Who else but Wolitzer would notice that writers complain about needing light “as though they’re plants,” or characterize a traffic jam as “long [and] fossilized”? And who else, after making me laugh so hard, would suddenly leave me sobbing with such a heartbreaking final act? That Wolitzer achieves all this in just over 200 pages is one more marvel for a book already overflowing with them. — Sam.
