Book No. 27 of 2021
A meditative read that captures a lot of what Cathy Park Hong calls “minor feelings”—the ugliness of normalized racism in higher academia stood out to me (as well as the feeling of being the only non-white person in a group, and the grim camaraderie with other POC, even when there’s little overlap in your actual experiences) but the novel also covers aspects of queer identity and living with the background of trauma. I appreciated how these things were just presented as they were, without analysis or explanation. Also, Dana is the WORST. (Women who weaponize white feminism and people with persecution complexes in general really make me want to throw something.)
Similar Reads
The trenchant lines encapsulating certain feelings, and overall writing style, reminded me of Jenny Zhang’s Sour Heart.
The persistence of systemic bias in STEM academia reminded me of Catherine Chung’s The Tenth Muse.