SequinBooks

This tiny little book has taken some time to digest.  It follows three different characters (or groups of characters) as they deal with grief and reading it post-election, for me, was a lot mentally.  While I am not experiencing the type of grief that the characters are talking about, my mind is lost and confused and it was nice to get lost in characters that are feeling similarly.  I have heard from some people that they were able to binge read this book in one sitting, which is what I was expecting to be able to do seeing as it is only 114 pages long.  But, in reality, this book took me a while to read.  I would have to put it down and absorb what was happening.  I needed to give myself time to sit and be with the poetic passages I had just read.  Poetry is not something that I read often so it took me longer to absorb and appreciate some of the passages in this book than it would have a book written all in prose.  All of that, though, is what made me really enjoy this book.  It made me stop and think and, when I read something for the third time and still didn’t really understand what was happening, it made me realize that the confusion and worry that I was feeling was exactly how I was supposed to be feeling.  Grief is not a feeling that makes sense.  It doesn’t fit into tiny, perfect boxes.

Porter creates some beautiful characters and, even when I knew that I mentally needed a break and needed to put the book down, I would read 10 pages more without even realizing it.  Going in, I was not expecting to really enjoy this book, but it was a delightful surprise.