​The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead is a novel set in the antebellum era about a black girl, Cora, who escapes from a plantation in Georgia and continues to run north toward freedom. Along the way, she meets people who work the Underground Railroad (a metaphor turned physical), abolitionists, slave patrollers, and hunters. Cora is victim to and watches the horrors of slavery, hangings, torture, and the worst of people as she tries to survive. It is a brutal and horrifying account, which feels like only a fraction of how terrible slavery was. As with any runaway slave, Cora is subjected to the unrelenting onslaught of a brutal slave catcher, Ridgeway, tasked with finding Cora. At every reprieve in South Carolina, Mr. Fletcher’s attic, the farm in Indiana, Cora is lulled into thinking she is safe, but she isn’t. She never is. The story ends with Cora finally killing Ridgeway and exiting a railroad tunnel, which acts as a physical embodiment of her freedom.
 
Whitehead intersperses Cora’s narrative with some of the people she meets along the way, such as Ridgeway, Caesar, Ethel, and her mother Mabel. Each one shows the depths of how gruesome their lives are and the never-ending way they are tied to slavery. It is a novel that doesn’t shy away from terror in how it describes moments like the torture of a man whose genitals are cut off and stuffed in his mouth. The novel is devastating, compelling, and powerful, but above everything else, terribly sad.
 
Final Rating: 4.5/5

Teach Us to Outgrow Our Madness by Kenzaburō Ōe is a collection of 4 novella length stories detailing strange occurrences and of people going mad. The first, ‘The Day He Himself Shall Wipe My Tears Away’, is about a man who believes he has liver cancer and is describing to the nurse about his father (who died from bladder cancer), his grieving mother, the emperor, and his brother who was killed during the war. It is a fascinating and sometimes confusing story where the man used to look up to his father but has difficulties understanding his place in the world. The second story, ‘Prize Stock’, is about a boy in a village that has captured an American pilot who crash landed in the forest. The boy is apprehensive and curious about the American while they begin to get along. However, when the American is about to be given over to the Japanese military, the American holds the boy hostage, which ends in the killing of the American by the boy’s father. I was drawn in by the way the boy sees and interacts with the American and how he digests his father’s actions. The third story, ‘Teach Us to Outgrow Our Madness’, is about a father whose son has a disability and is fierce in trying to protect the boy’s innocence. Though, at a zoo, the father feels helpless in trying to protect his son, and it starts cracking his understanding of himself. This particular story was based on Ōe’s own experiences with his disabled son. And finally, the last story, ‘Aghwee the Sky Monster’, is about a young man who helps out a composer haunted by his dead son in the sky. The young man helps the composer right his wrongs, destroy his work, and say goodbye to the places he loved before the composer attempts to kill himself by walking in front of a truck.
 
Each story is beautiful, haunting, and powerful in how death, grief, and terrible life circumstances affect and change the outlooks of the characters. It is painful to see how each character’s “madness” reveals itself and what they must do to right their wrongs. It is a collection of what it means to be a father, a son, and what happens when the world between the two falls apart.
 
Overall Rating: 4.5/5

​After the Banquet by Yukio Mishima is a novel about Kazu, a business owner of a restaurant in Japan, trying to get her husband, Noguchi, a retired politician, back into politics. Kazu meets Noguchi when one of Noguchi’s close friends collapses in her restaurant. The two seem unlikely, since Kazu is described as a more outgoing and talkative type, while Noguchi is a quiet older man. Kazu falls in love with Noguchi partially because of his demeanor and partially because she wants to be in a respectable grave like his family’s when she dies. Kazu, throughout Noguchi’s campaign, is seen as the mastermind and the one to sway people’s votes. Though, once the opposing party distributes pamphlets describing Kazu’s scandalous and predatory actions, Noguchi’s campaign loses. Arguments, and divorce ensue, with the final part of the novel ending where each character started: Kazu tending to her restaurant and Noguchi living in obscurity.
 
I loved how the novel worked to show the dynamic between not only Kazu and Noguchi, but also Kazu and her campaign partner, and finally Kazu and her old friend. As the novel went on, Kazu not only got more and more desperate, but also her endearing façade quickly crumbled. From the news of her early illegal campaigning to her past lovers, Kazu was always in a stew of controversy. Overall, the politics and the character dynamics were entertaining to watch unfold.
 
Final Rating: 4/5

​BeHere/1942 by Masaki Fujihata is a book describing an exhibit put on by the Japanese artist Masaki Fujihata, which documents and explores the Japanese American Internment Camps. The book seems to be paired with an art exhibit featuring 3D renderings of famous photographs taken as Japanese Americans were forced to leave their homes. In one instance in the book, Fujihata zooms in on the eyes of famous photographs to show how the observer (the photographer) is reflected in the eyes of the observed (the Japanese American). The book is broken up into three parts, first describing Fujihata’s project and process, second discussing the history of the internment camps, and third focusing on Fujihata himself. The book, and Fujihata’s vision, is to think about how the observer/photographer/government wanted to represent and positively spin the incarcerations. There were some striking, and deeply emotional photographs and it was interesting to learn about the exhibit even though I wasn’t able to see it.
 
Final Rating: 3.5/5

​The Best American Poetry 2022 is a selection of poetry guest edited by Matthew Zapruder with poems from Ada Límon, Ocean Vuong, Louise Glück, and Diane Seuss, among others. Most, if not all the poems, featured meditations on the affect of the pandemic, the loneliness/isolation it brought, and how daily life was interpreted. There were poems, such as ‘Goblin’ by Matthew Dickman, which showed how thin the line between care and abuse is and what that power meant to the speaker. And in this way, Dickman, upon saying, “There are so many ways/to eat the young.” recognizes and fears how his actions can change his child’s view of him. Or take Robin Myers’s poem, ‘Diego de Montemayor’, which finds Myers at a weird crossroads, knowing their ancestor oversaw a massacre, and still recognizing that ancestor as a part of their family. And, of course, how can I not forget Ocean Vuong’s, ‘Reason for Staying’, with the immaculate line, “Because my uncle never killed himself—but simply died, on purpose.” There were certainly high points, but after reading the bios, the writers did seem homogonous in their backgrounds, from which I would’ve liked to see more diversity.
 
Final Rating: 3.5/5

​Nobody by Marc Lamont Hill is a book focusing on the injustices Black Americans face with regards to police, the incarceration system, and Capitalism. It focuses on the lives of a few particular people, namely Michael Brown, Sandra Bland, Freddie Gray, Eric Garner, and Trayvon Martin. It also looks at whole communities, such as Flint, Michigan and Pruitt-Igoe. The whole thesis of the book, which I agree with, is that there are systems set in place to disenfranchise black and brown people. This can be seen, Hill explains, in the privatization of prisons, the neglect of government programs for the poor, the militarization of the police, and the prioritization of capitalistic profits over the welfare of the people. It is heartbreaking and frustrating to find that whether through willful ignorance, classism, or racism, Black families and communities take the brunt of the consequences. And in one instance, it was surprising to read that, “…the US Fish and Wildlife Service, the Department of Agriculture, and the US Railroad Retirement Board have their own SWAT teams…” There are so many injustices and wrongdoings by individuals and the government that Hill highlights, it’s disheartening to think how many other injustices have gone on without being documented.
 
Final Rating: 4/5

​How to Ruin Everything by George Watsky is a collection of essays chronicling the adventures, mishaps, and travels of a musician on the edge of success. There are moments in India, Canada, and San Francisco, which all highlight the precarious and sometimes grubby nature of Watsky’s situations. It was interesting to read how Watsky was able to get by before he made it big in music, and how he kept on persisting.
 
Though, the essays felt like they followed a more conventional way of storytelling, which felt somewhat hollow. Yes, it was interesting to read about the weird travels and stoner moments, but it didn’t feel like it went beyond those moments to synthesize or draw anything more. Maybe the essays didn’t need to be anything more than they were, and after all, it erred on the side of jokes and humor. Overall, it was interesting to see the trajectory and situations Watsky got into and how he was able to overcome them.
 
Final Rating: 3/5

​Keep Going by Austin Kleon is a little book about how to stay creative with some tips and tricks that have worked for the author. It’s a fun little book, though most of its advice seems generally non-specific and not as useful after the initial glance. Though, its general message of keep going is at least worth noting. I also enjoyed some of the comics as well.
 
Final Rating: 2.5/5

​The Best American Short Stories 2011 is a collection of short stories selected by Geraldine Brooks. The stories range from a scifi story about a love drug to a whole town hibernating every winter. There are some stories that stick out boldly such as ‘The Sleep’ by Caitlin Horrocks, ‘Out of Body’ by Jennifer Egan, ‘Phantoms’ by Steven Millhause, and ‘Dog Bites’ by Ricardo Nuila. Though, I was underwhelmed by the more well-known authors in this collection such as Joyce Carol Oates and George Saunders. Oates’s story focuses on a daughter who can’t identify her mother’s body, and while an interesting premise, I didn’t enjoy the voice. It wasn’t as vibrant or as specific as other authors. And George Saunders’s story about the love drug opened too quickly and the drug names/scenes fell too easily within scifi tropes for it to land or for me to take it seriously. Though, I think ‘Out of Body’ was a gem in the way it dealt with suicide, friendships, college, and relationships. It was also interesting to see that within the Contributor notes, many of the stories came directly from personal experience.
 
Final Rating: 3/5

​Filthy Animals by Brandon Taylor is a novel consisting of stories, some interlinked and some roughly sewn together, which mainly follows Lionel in his encounters with a sexually adventurous couple. Lionel is a proctor who is stalling in his career in mathematics, and so finds himself at a university party where he is out of his depths. There, he meets Charles, a dancer, who pursues him, and they hook up that night. Throughout the stories, Lionel becomes slightly enchanted and slightly put off by the couple’s dynamic, which draws up raw emotions from his childhood.
 
My favorite part of the book, which was not related to the main plot line, was the story, ‘Filthy Animals’, in which two friends, Nolan and Milton, go to a party for Milton’s birthday. The whole time, Milton questions whether he should tell Nolan his parents are sending him to Idaho in a few months. Though, when they encounter Abe, a notorious jerk, at the party, they get in a mess when Nolan smashes Abe’s head in with a rock. The novel and stories are brilliantly written, with a strong eye for contentious relationships. Its language was accommodating and, at the end of it, I wanted to know more about Lionel and his past.
 
Final Rating: 4/5