I don’t usually read collections of essays, but this was
recommended to me by a friend who showed me relatable passages, and there
really isn’t a better word for this work. As a young female living in a city,
it is inherently “relatable.”
Chew-Bose writes the way that I could wish that I could
write, short, easily understood sentences, and yet it all seems very profound.
Her thoughts weave between various related memories and shows a thread of
interconnectedness through it all. She writes about hearts, about living alone,
about being the daughter of immigrants, about being a daughter in general. She
just seems to get it, it being contemporary life.
Most of her essays are rather short (the exception being the
first one, which is 93 pages funnily enough) but I think the most memorable one
is the one on sounds that she cannot forget. This includes passing sounds, like
an athlete saying “practice,” and some more serious. It made me think of sounds
that I cannot forget, because despite being a musician I actually have a hard
time keeping sounds in my brain. The first note of “Day Tripper” maybe. Or a
meme. Definitely nothing as cool and put together as what she has.
Really great memoir writers somehow find a way to make it
not about themselves (because anyone can write about themselves). Here
Chew-Bose finds a way to turn her writing on its head and make it all about the
reader instead, which is quite a feat. In reading it you start to think about
your life and your experiences, and how they relate to hers. It is a rare and
heart opening experience indeed.
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