BOOKS | Reviews
P H O T O :
R Y A N P F L U G E R
SOCIAL MEMOIR PATRISSE KHAN-CULLORS & ASHA BANDELE When They Call You a Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter Memoir (Canongate) ●●●●●
Brought together by a collective goal to dismantle the shackles of systemic racism, Alicia Garza, Opal Tometi and Patrisse Khan-Cullors (pictured) are the founders of Black Lives Matter. Despite an emphasis on love and justice, they (and indeed the movement) have been routinely labelled as extremists. But BLM’s origins and the context in which it was founded are vital to
any understanding of how privilege can shield people from the cultural drivers that demand the reiteration that black lives matter. For this reason, When They Call You a Terrorist is not only a memoir (written alongside author and journalist Asha Bandele), but a vital piece of education and an emphatic call to arms to fight against police brutality, institutionalised racism and anti-blackness at all costs. Tracing the movement through Khan-Cullors’ account of her
own upbringing and journey into activism, the book provides an insight into life in America via the perspective of a black, queer, female from an underprivileged background. Certainly, her sobering experiences help to contextualise the need for BLM but the beauty of the writing and the vital emotion and strength behind her words underline its very tenets. That it is the work of women that has led to this global movement is largely unknown due to the widespread erasure of women’s voices. But When They Call You a Terrorist places women of colour, as well as queer and trans women, at the heart of its conception, all the while opening up conversations about the state-sanctioned hostility facing black Americans today. (Arusa Qureshi) ■ Out now.
MYSTERY JESS KIDD The Hoarder (Canongate) ●●●●●
FICTION JOE DUNTHORNE The Adulterants (Penguin) ●●●●● ESSAY COLLECTION ZADIE SMITH Feel Free (Hamish Hamilton) ●●●●●
Jess Kidd follows her debut novel Himself with The Hoarder, the story of carer Maud Drennan, who has recently been assigned to the sprawling home of cantankerous Cathal Flood. This once-grand house is overrun with cats and teaming with more than two decades of rubbish. As Maud clears out the few rooms she is allowed to access a series of clues, seemingly from ‘the other side’, suggest the house holds a potentially murderous secret.
Together with her agoraphobic, transgender
landlady and a gang of saintly apparitions, including a crude St Valentine and confrontational St Dymphna, Maud attempts to uncover the truth. The investigation brings up an unsolved incident from her own past and the dual mysteries are continually flipped on their heads as identities shift and new perspectives either flesh out the stories or show them to be based on mistruths or assumptions. Kidd’s writing is incredibly imaginative, viscerally
describing the curiosities and horrors that lie behind Flood’s barricade of National Geographic magazines in the out-of-bounds area of the house. She also has a talent for unusual and amusing similes. Her characters are complex and drawn with a deft comic touch that blends tender moments with a comedy of manners. The Hoarder is a gripping mystery, grounded in the realities of isolating secrets and enriched with a supernatural bent and comic flair. (Rowena McIntosh) ■ Out Now.
50 THE LIST 1 Feb–31 Mar 2018 50 THE LIST 1 Feb–31 Mar 2018
Up to now, Joe Dunthorne’s novels have concerned themselves with coming of age tales, first in his breakthrough debut Submarine (2008), and next in 2011’s Wild Abandon. In The Adulterants, his characters are grown up, but the coming of age element isn’t entirely subdued; one of the innate understandings here is that, even in their 30s, adults are often as adrift as children. The novel tells of a quartet of thirtysomething
Londoners from the perspective of Ray, a freelance tech journalist, whose marriage to intensive care nurse Garthene is comfortable and perfectly ordinary, although she’s expecting their first child imminently. One night, at a party with their married friends Marie and Lee, Ray and Marie flirt a little too intimately, and a drunk Lee punches him; yet this is just the straw which breaks the back of the couple’s marriage, and a heartbroken Lee – friends with Garthene for many years – ends up sleeping on her and Ray’s sofa. At fewer than 200 pages it’s an economical read,
and the story retains a narrow focus on just the core group of characters and those who come into their orbit. Its intimacy and fluency in middle class lives reminds somewhat of Ian McEwan, but what sets Dunthorne’s writing apart – and elevates it – is a fierce black humour which matches the addictively readable crispness of the prose. (David Pollock) ■ Out Thu 3 Feb.
Zadie Smith might be better known for her novels, like the groundbreaking White Teeth and the Howard’s End-inspired On Beauty for two. But her second collection of essays is a treat for the mind and soul, her wry and intuitive musings offering nuggets of deeply intellectual yet tender observations about everything from pop culture to politics. In her pieces about music, a clear passion emanates from the pages. This is most notable in ‘The House That Hova Built’, an article about Jay-Z that first appeared in The New York Times Magazine, and ‘Some Notes on Attunement’, a stunning piece concerning Joni Mitchell and her music. But Smith also succeeds in placing a distinctly
personal touch on her political essays, such as ‘Fences: A Brexit Diary’ and ‘North-west London Blues’ (the latter revolving around the closure of public libraries), which adds a sense of humanity to issues that are broad and all-encompassing. The range of themes covered in the collection serves to highlight Smith’s enthusiasm for the discourse and analysis of topical issues and current events.
As well as being a much-revered novelist, Smith has long proven her talent as an essayist in her work for publications such as The New York Review of Books and Harper’s. Feel Free is a handbook to contemporary life and culture, from a mind that stimulates the important questions with an element of warmth and compassion. (Arusa Qureshi) ■ Out now.