The Maris Review, vol 41

Now on Ghost!

What I read this week

You Didn't Hear This From Me: (Mostly) True Notes on Gossip by Kelsey McKinney

Only recently I went to a party to celebrate Kelsey's triumphant run as the host of the podcast Normal Gossip. A friend told me some hot goss that she wanted to share with Kelsey, and I responded that Kelsey was the one I'd heard that item from in the first place. She has truly created an empire!

Now we get Kelsey's take on gossip in book form. She writes with the same joy that she shares gossip, making it fun and exciting, all while reminding us that storytelling is a craft that you have to master in order to succeed at both pursuits. Kelsey was raised in an evangelical background where gossip was a sin, partly because it empowered the sinners to question the church and the culture around it (see any kind of whisper network), so her passion for gossip always had a hint of rebellion to it. There's no one else I'd rather see grapple with the moral gray areas of gossip, and Kelsey does an excellent job here.

You Didn't Hear This From Me examines gossip's cultural impact from reality TV and celebrity gossip to Refinery 29's Money Diaries and how social media has changed everything. Kelsey's sources are a mix of academics and noted thinkers, running the gamut from Walter Benjamin and Janet Malcolm and Socrates to Britney Spears and the writers of Gossip Girl. This is the sign of a great book, truly.

Bibliophobia: A Memoir by Sarah Chihaya

"All my crises are scrawled in the margins of the novels I've read over and over again, sometimes to feel safe, sometimes to sink willfully into further despair." I spend so much time trying to convince other people to read that I rarely contemplate the negatives of a life invested in reading other people's words. Rather than framing the act of reading books as a healthy escape or a way to learn and grow, in her debut-memoir-slash-book-of-criticism Sarah Chihaya relates the dangers of losing oneself in books, honing in on their ability to slash and maim.

The irony, of course, is that, in describing the books that have most profoundly impacted her in a life plagued by depression, Sarah has written an utterly compelling, life-affirming book. I'm so sorry, Sarah!! But really, there are so many books written about books and how they've changed or enriched the author's life, but this one that limns the ugly depths of being a book obsessive is a standout.

On being the arbiter of antisemitism, part 285

Over the past year and a half, I've written a lot about how criticism of Israel gets mistaken for antisemitism by everyone from Jewish elders to entire publishers to nonpartisan organizations whose main job is to know what antisemitism is and what it isn't. A brief recap:

This week I found a stultifying example of this kind of hypocrisy, in which blatant antisemitism exists right in the middle of ambient calls to be nice to Israel. The example comes from Post Hill Press, a midsized publisher whose books are distributed by Simon & Schuster. Here is the mission statement of one of its "conservative" imprints, Bombardier Books: "In a time when the media and much of America’s elite tries to limit and stifle debate in the name of sensitivity, safe spaces, and political correctness, now more than ever we need writers with courage and conviction—and the gift to be able to express themselves with intelligence, eloquence, and good humor." 

Here is the courageous book that Bombardier Books has recently published (to which I am absolutely not linking).

Compare this book cover to antisemitic tropes and caricatures as seen below. Good lord! They're saying the quiet parts out loud.

Compare "The Woketopus" to the numerous books published by Bombardier's sister imprint at Post Hill Press, Wicked Son. These are books that purport to be worried about the future of Judaism.

I am once again begging American publishers to, if they absolutely must publish books that deride people who are against genocide, also take a look at the hate speech coming from inside the house. The mental gymnastics that publishers must play to convince themselves that they are on the side of free speech are enough to give anyone a migraine.

New releases, 2/11

Loca by Alejandro Heredia

American Mother: A Life Reclaimed by Colum McCann and Diane Foley

Beta Vulgaris by Margie Sarsfield

Waiting for the Long Night Moon by Amanda Peters

Original Sins: The (Mis)education of Black and Native Children and the Construction of American Racism by Eve L. Ewing

Museum of Degenerates: Portraits of American Grotesque by Eli Valley

Live Fast: A Novel by Brigitte Giraud, trans by Cory Stockwell

Casualties of Truth by Lauren Francis-Sharma

You Didn't Hear This From Me: (Mostly) True Notes on Gossip by Kelsey McKinney

(see above)