“Pet” by Akwaeke Emezi
This YA story is at once a serious look at repressed trauma (personal and societal) and a sensitive examination of diversity and compassion. A wonderful introduction to community and responsibility.
“The Origins of Totalitarianism” by Hannah Arendt
Those looking for quick takeaways about totalitarian regimes, especially in our current climate, are disappointed that Arendt hasn’t offered the complexity of the issue in bullet points. But of course, the complex and nuanced and even contradictory history of the world isn’t built that way.
“Hardears” by Matthew Clarke
Clarke’s original Caribbean hybrid of history and myth is an act of art and decolonialization, of imagination and resistance to the mainstream, though not wholly penetrable to audiences beyond the island culture.
“Omeros” by Derek Walcott
Walcott’s epic poetic work is at once a refiguring of Homer and the colonial history of St. Lucia, of the indigenous everywhere, of the myths which mark poet and people. An extraordinary layering of all.
“A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man” by James Joyce
If we allow the novel to work on its own terms, and quit asking it to meet our expectations of a common coming-of-age story, we can find that the style itself reveals the experience we seek.
“The Unbearable Lightness of Being” by Milan Kundera
Kundera’s near masterpiece is compelling story, hypnotic characters and interactions, a profound theme, and . . . something else more elusive still.
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