If the fundamental purpose of literature is to examine self against society, how the individual is absorbed by the institution, then this MINOR DETAIL-esque subway ride through New York City provides a stunning contribution to the canon. Johnson's dive into a damaged and angsty psyche suffering from the effects of a lifetime of trauma and abuse was riveting. I was vellicated. Couldn't put it down, couldn't look away.

Everything Vivian experiences triggers her. The shape of her own body and her obsession with thinness. The random insults she absorbs while passing men on the street. Sitting next to a man on the subway who she becomes convinced is in cahoots with the man sitting across from them, and together they are going to rape her. The very real shutdown she has in the courtroom while serving as the lawyer for a psychiatric patient that renders her unable to do her job. The things in her past that made her this way. Wow was it intense living in Vivian's mind.

Want to know what a lifetime of racism and misogyny and toxicity looks like as experienced by a woman? Read this book. Especially if you're a man.