What I Read in September
You can tell we’re getting into spookytimes based on my September reads. ’Tis the season for R.I.P. (Readers Imbibing Peril) and finishing up challenge prompts. September was a good reading month with a total of 7 books completed — 2 novels, 2 poetry collections, 1 memoir, 1 nonfiction and 1 short story collection. Three of these were audiobooks.
Dear Senthuran: A Black Spirit Memoir by Akwaeke Emezi (Riverhead, 2021)
Akwaeke Emezi gets a lot of Booktube love, it seems, so I thought I’d give this a try. I’m somewhat conflicted about this one.
What I liked: the memoir-in-letters format, their raw honesty about being trans, the concept of bending the world to achieve one’s goals, and their candor about the writing process. Regarding the latter, I haven’t read Emezi’s other books (and am on the fence about doing so) but while it’s not necessary before reading Dear Senthuran, I could see where that would be helpful. The writing is powerful and resonant and there are some gorgeous passages.
What I struggled with: the repetition (somewhat expected with this format, I suppose), the un-chronological nature (I kept thinking, wait, did this happen before or after this or that?) and Emezi’s frequent references to themselves as being a god. The latter point, I know, sounds odd in the context of our Western culture, and I appreciated…
