In fact, I'm grateful for a lot these days in this ever madding world. And one of those things is books. Not only having the time and space to write them, but also read them. I've more than enough posts on writing and books and how they have impacted my life, so for the first time, I will write about some of my favorites, ones that I am grateful exist and what they mean to me. These are not reviews or summaries, but something more. They are about what gives the stories pulse and beauty and how they (though fiction) speak a truth that could not be told in any other way.
Bunny by Mona Awad 🐰 Life as metaphor
This entire novel is written as a metaphor for the creative process--at times alienating, horrific, twisted, and dark, but also playful, whimsical, clever, and a bit genius. A love letter to the imagination, Mona Awad once stated in an interview. A surreal and messy experience from start to finish. To live creatively can feel like this a lot of the time, at least for me when I'm deep into a project. But why would I want it to be any other way? Life is surreal and messy, but also achingly beautiful. I take it all in. I write it all out.
The Secret History by Donna Tartt 🕮 Life in the shadow of story
Donna Tartt, the goddess of dark academia, birthed a genre that makes you think about university life (and misspent youth) in an entirely new way. Our life experiences, especially when we are young, shape us whether we want to admit to it or not. No matter how much therapy or healing we might try, there are some experiences that will always haunt us, that will always live in the shadows of our life story, peering over our shoulder, waiting on us to look back.
Richard Papen, our protagonist, sets us up for this in the prologue: I suppose at one time in my life I might have had any number of stories, but now there is no other. This is the only story I will ever be able to tell. We can either use this to our advantage or let it eat us alive. This book has taught me how to turn pain into story, into art. Take that one story, and instead of allowing it to take your life, use it to create.
Story of Your Life by Ted Chiang ॐ Life as language
Bound by language, it informs our reality including the way we experience time. Here in this reality, we use linear language and therefore experience linear time. So in this life, whether we have free will or if our lives are predetermined isn't the point. It's how we respond in every given moment, for better or worse. Even if we know the future as it moves straight toward us, we aren't going to know that experience and our reaction to it until it actually happens--like light hitting water, will it take the minimum or maximum route?
Character Louise asks us in the end: From the beginning I knew my destination....But am I working toward an extreme of joy, or of pain? A lesson that comes up again and again--when confronted with the shocking, the confusing, the unexpected, can you take a step back and allow it come at you in slow motion? Whether it hits in a moment of joy or pain, it can be processed and transmuted for the better. Or so I'd like to think.
Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel ∞ Life as interwoven connection
I read this book back in early April while island hopping around Raja Ampat, the eastern most region of Indonesia. Remote and cut off from the rest of the world, it made me think about how interconnected the world truly is. Part of Station Eleven takes place in a post apocalyptic world, but focuses on those intricate interconnections made prior, those connections that survived. We see these connections travel over time and place and through the different characters. And how small gestures of creativity and kindness can impact others in such a way it gets them through something apocalyptic (even a real apocalypse) and will remain long after.
What are some books you are grateful for that have impacted your life in unexpected and beautiful ways?
