Americanah
…there was cement in her soul. It had been there for a while, an early morning disease of fatigue, shapeless desires, brief imaginary glints of other lives she could be living. How could the life of a white middle-class European expat resemble in any way that of a black Nigerian migrant who is facing racism for the first time? Probably hardly, if at all. And yet, the first time I read this book, it spoke to me in many familiar…
The End of the Story
Then, although it was still the end of the story, I put it at the beginning of the novel, as if I needed to tell the end first in order to go on and tell the rest. Memory is capricious. At least mine is. It does not work with clockwork precision, but its errs and digresses constantly. I can perfectly recall the way I felt when I read a certain book, like this very one, or reconstruct accurately that profound…
Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead
“But why should we have to be useful and for what reason? Who divided the world into useless and useful, and by what right? Does a thistle have no right to life, or a Mouse that eats the green in a warehouse?” This is a story to be read over and over again. For Tokarczuk has managed to create a captivating, heart-warming thriller of mysterious murders which is, at the same time, filled with all the essential questions of our…
Fear of Flying
“Women are their own worst enemies. And guilt is the main weapon of self-torture . . . Show me a woman who doesn’t feel guilty and I’ll show you a man.” Guilt is probably the default state of mind of any woman. We have this inherited ability of believing ourselves responsible for all the evils in the world, the negative feelings of others (funnily enough, not the positive ones), their misfortunes (but not their successes) and so on. The myths…
No Logo: No Space, No Choice, No Jobs
“The claustrophobic sense of despair that has so often accompanied the colonization of public space and the loss of secure work begins to lift when one starts to think about the possibilities for a truly globally minded society, one that would include not just economics and capital, but global citizens, global right and global responsibilities as well” Unlike teenage Naomi Klein, as she herself recounts on her book, I don’t recall ever having cared for the logos appearing on my…
La playa no nos pertenece
Pese a lo mucho que estoy disfrutando este periodo de mi vida en la zona de la costa amalfitana, no puedo ignorar la tristeza y el horror que me produce la transformación que ha experimentado la región desde hace poco más de un mes: las numerosas amplias playas del lugar, antes vacías y accesibles, están ahora cercadas y ocupadas en su totalidad por ringleras de tumbonas y sombrillas perfectamente alineadas que una debe alquilar si quiere gozar del privilegio de…
Notes from my balcony
In the South of Italy, during the warm months life unrolls mainly in the balconies, turning this suspended structure into the busiest living space of the house. Equipped with all sorts of gadgets and outdoor furniture, balconies become a window into the lives of its dwellers, from the teenage student who prepares for their exams to the smoking patriarch, the playing children or the dormant pets, a sketch of the rhythm of each family member is revealed to any neighbouring…
Wanderlust: A History of Walking
“Many people nowadays live in a series of interiors… disconnected from each other. On foot everything stays connected, for while walking one occupies the spaces between those interiors in the same way one occupies those interiors. One lives in the whole world rather than in interiors built up against it.” As a teenager, me and my friends would spend hours walking around our hometown, a medium-size city off the northern coast of Spain. While updating each other on the weekly…
My body, my choice?
There is no denying that the past year or so has put a strain on our lives both at a physical and mental level, although the latter still has not received its proper recognition due to enduring stigma and most people have instead focused on the physical realm, one whose effects they can more visibly perceive and suffer from. The popularity of at-home workouts during this period exemplifies the increased awareness of body care and need for movement that being…
A Natural History of the Senses
“Don’t think of night as the absence of day; think of it as a kind of freedom. Turned away from our sun, we see the dawning of far flung galaxies. We are no longer sun blinded to the star coated universe we inhabit.” The ability to make you look at things differently, with renewed interest and appreciation, is precisely the main achievement that Diane Ackerman conquers in her comprehensive analysis of the five main senses. Not only have I been…
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Woman in the making 