I’m at a loss of words. This book is an enigma. I’ve never read something so unorthodox, potent, and confusing. I don’t understand a lot of what I read, but I still find myself eager to jump into the book. I struggled a lot with the topic of my blog post, so I decided I may as well go meta (thankfully this isn’t a college essay).
Now I think there are some areas and general points that are pretty transparent, but I feel those are the minority. So much of what Rankine writes is complex and meaningful in its ambiguity. Maybe it’s because I have a hard time with the meaning of the passages, but I think Rankine’s puzzle-like writing style says a lot about the book’s focus. For a lot of the passages or images, the reader is forced to dissect each part and, often taking a lot of thought, piece it together. It’s clear she wants the reader to look beyond the text’s face value and truly think about the issues she’s writing about. Perhaps Rankine is suggesting that these racial conflicts are like her writing: complex and confusing.
I agree that this book is unorthodox and is very confusing. It is like nothing I have ever read. However, I do think that the short story collection is a very powerful, complex way to get the main message across.
ReplyDeleteRankine really takes the idea of concentrated literature and runs with it here. She is able to bring so much meaning from short passages that it's kind of amazing.
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