September 19, 2024: Summer Reads: Let Us Descend

[I didn’tget to share my usual BeachReads series earlier this summer, so I wanted to make up for it byhighlighting a handful of the many amazing novels I read as I worked to returnto pleasure reading over the last few months. I’d love to hear what you’ve beenreading, from any genre, for a crowd-sourced weekend post!]

I wrote aboutJesmynWard’s phenomenal new novel a couple weeks ago, as I’ll be teaching it inmy English Studies Capstone course this semester. As I noted there, I’ve long beena fan of Ward’s, but I’d argue that with this novel she’s done somethingparticularly impressive—created a genuinely unique and unfamiliar historical novelabout slavery. By “unfamiliar” I don’t mean that she’s not engaged withAmerican histories with which we all need to grapple, nor that her book isn’tin conversation with prior works such as Morrison’sBeloved and Whitehead’sThe Underground Railroad (among many others). But nonetheless, despitemy own relatively thorough knowledge of both those national and literaryhistories, at virtually every moment of reading this bracing and beautiful bookI felt as if I was encountering something new. This is quite simply a bookevery one of us needs to read.

Lastsummer read tomorrow,

Ben

PS. Whathave you been reading?