I am a huge fan of Morgan Parker’s poetry, and I was excited to hear that she was publishing an essay collection. You can clearly see her sharp critiques of US culture and society (particularly Black culture) in her poems; I was curious to know how she was going to bring that to her essays (if at all). I have to admit, this collection wasn’t quite what I was expecting it to be, but I don’t think this is necessarily a bad thing. I didn’t expect it to be as self-reflective in the sense that, at times, it felt like I was entering memoir territory. It helped me to quickly reframe this collection to be a little more like a memoir, though, and made for a better understanding of how she was thinking about culture and society. While she does regularly touch on the Black experience—particularly Black women’s experiences—this collection was especially focused on one Black woman’s experiences (i.e., Parker’s own) and her position in a world full of misogynoir.

These essays flow wonderfully from one to the next, and Parker has deftly crafted a cohesive collection that will absolutely have you in an introspective state, reflecting on the state of the world (and, particularly for those in the United States, the state of the country).