September Reading Recap

I read three excellent books last month in three quite different genres:

→ TRANSCENDENT KINGDOM by Yaa Gyasi: In Gifty's neuroscience research as a grad student at Stanford, she studies the brains of mice to learn about the mechanisms behind addiction and depression. Her brother died of a heroin overdose, and her mother has struggled with depression ever since, but Gifty is reluctant to connect her research focus to her family's problems. She studies neuroscience because it's hard, she and her mother don't discuss her brother, and she doesn't tell her labmates anything about her life, even when her severely depressed mother comes from Alabama to stay with her and won't get out of bed. Gifty used to communicate most freely in the letters to God that she wrote in her journal, but these days she's torn over how to balance faith and science. In the course of the novel, Gifty recalls her childhood, explores her views of religion, and explains her work, until she's answered the research question that is her own life.

TRANSCENDENT KINGDOM is an intimate story of one woman and one small family, so it's quite unlike Gyasi's epic debut, HOMEGOING, but both books unfold with confident leaps through time and skillfully crafted scenes. As Gifty reveals different aspects of her past and present, there aren't any sudden revelations or shocking twists, yet the story builds to a nuanced, satisfying depiction of her life, or at least as much as she's willing to share. This is a beautiful, wrenching story of complicated family ties, mental illness, loss, and belief. I can't wait to see what new direction Gyasi will go next.

→ TWELVE: POEMS INSPIRED BY THE BROTHERS GRIMM FAIRY TALE by Andrea Blythe is a small but powerful book of prose poetry. These compact stories imagine the post-fairy tale lives of The Twelve Dancing Princesses, giving each sister identity and agency. I wouldn't have picked up this book if Andrea weren't a friend, but I happily read it twice through.

Each sister's tale is vivid with imagery and sensation, and I was delighted by the unexpected fates they reveal. The first sister rages against the man she's forced to marry, but her desire to be free of him is complicated by lust: "They played a game of poisoning, death always at the edges of every smile, every kiss and touch and caress." The fifth sister is pregnant, but she doesn't know if she's carrying a baby, a magical creature, or the product of ingested apple seeds. The eighth and ninth sisters, twins, become bandits of legend: "No one ever said two girls could carve open the world like an oyster, taking all its pearls and swallowing the meat." The tenth sister finds love in the palace kitchen: "At night, they untangled the laces of their skirts, uncaged themselves of corsets, peeling each other open like rare fruit." There's bodily pleasure throughout this collection, along with a yearning for knowledge and escape, and the result is an empowering, inventive storybook.

→ ARTIFICIAL CONDITION by Martha Wells is the second installment of the Murderbot Diaries, and I liked it even more than the first, but I recommend reading these novellas in order for the full story of the highly competent, very anxious Security Unit. In this episode, Murderbot is on its own for the first time, trying to escape notice by passing as an augmented human while investigating the mystery of its forgotten past. Murderbot is fortunate to meet up with a clever research transport ship who may be an asshole but has some good ideas, and also shares Murderbot's enthusiasm for watching downloaded media serials.

Murderbot continues to be an excellent protagonist and entertaining narrator, and I enjoyed seeing how the character developed through the challenges faced in this book. The growing friendship between Murderbot and Asshole Research Transport has a great dynamic, and I hope there will be more of ART in the future. If you've been curious about the Murderbot series but wary of the hype, I urge you to check it out.

Good Stuff Out There:

→ At the Paris Review, Adrienne Raphel returns to Beverly Cleary's Ramona books and finds delight and weirdness: "Seeing images of Portland in tear gas, under an orange sky, I've felt enraged, terrified, and helpless. I've wanted to escape to Ramona’s Portland, with invisible lizards and makeshift sheep costumes and beloved red rubber boots." (Thanks, The Millions!)