Julia

The blurb on the cover of this book, from Elizabeth Gilbert, says, “A hymn of love to the world.” Yes, yes, YES. I had first heard Wall Kimmerer talk about her perspective during an On Being podcast, and this book was just a treasure from start to finish. She has so much scientific and indigenous wisdom to share, and an exquisite way of blending the two. If I could make everyone I know read this book, I would. I tend to feel environmental despair (when I'm not actually out digging around in my garden), and this was the antidote, call to arms (or rather peace), and way forward.

My bestie recommended this back to me when it came out, and I have no idea why I didn't just read it immediately! She and I are literary "twin flames" (thanks, Megan Fox, for the parlance), so she was 100% accurate in her educated guess I would love this. 10/10; no notes. Read the last third really slowly because I didn't want it to end!! Epic, intimate, searing.

I don't think this quote from the final pages can be captured in its full glory out of context, but it was rattling around in my head for days afterward and came up in another book club when someone was talking about the tightrope between nihilistic despair and hope: "A breeze would blow them over, and the world is filled with more than breezes: diseases and disasters, monsters and pain in a thousand variations.... How can I live on beneath such a burden of doom?.... Circe, he says, it will be alright.... He does not mean that it does not hurt. He does not mean that we are not frightened. Only that: we are here. This is what it means to swim in the tide, to walk the earth and feel it touch your feet. This is what it means to be alive."

Noticing that I'm at odds with the overall star rating here for this novel, and I don't care! I loved every second of this novel. Leave it to Lily King to make me nostalgic for the worst parts of waiting tables. I think probably the highest endorsement I can give for her snappy writing and bravery about the writing process is that I gave this novel to an aspiring 20-year-old writer who has been struggling with whether to pursue this dream, and this was her verdict: "I loved this so much I hate you."

Beautiful, challenging, inspiring. Read this at the exact right moment that I've been struggling with some stuff about how to actual do transformative justice at work, and I feel rejuvenated and reinvigorated for the challenges inherent in change and growth.

I just wish this anthology had more of Alice Wong's inimitable voice in it, and I wish I'd discovered Alice Wong earlier! What a loss for all of us. This anthology was beautiful, challenging, expansive, and necessary.