A surprisingly hopeful meditation on why we shed tears.
An eclectic reflection on human waterworks.
Award-winning poet Christle (Creative Writing/Emory Univ. Heliopause, 2015, etc.) pushes the boundaries of her genre with this hybrid approach to tears. Fusing poetry with lyric essay and a significant amount of research, the author sheds new light on the basic, universal phenomenon of crying. Beyond fact—namely, that at one point or another, fluid has leaked from everyone’s eyes—some may wonder what more there is to know. This book provides the definitive answer: plenty. There are no chapters. Rather, in one long reflection, divided into small, partial-page sections, Christle examines such elements as pretend grief (she cites poet Chelsey Minnis, who calls it “cry-hustling”); “white tears,” (a Caucasian person’s response to suddenly realizing the enormity of systemic racism); and the differences between the three types of tears: basal (lubricant), irritant (a response to a foreign substance), and psychogenic (emotional). She also considers the distinction between crying and weeping—“crying is louder; weeping is wetter”—and introduces readers to professional mourners and lachrymatories, small vessels in which tears are stored. Of particular interest is Christle’s inquiry into the connections among grief, gender, and anger. She wonders “whether men kill to create an occasion for the grief they already feel.” The author infuses these tear-related themes with prose about her personal experiences, including her own treatment for depression and her staggering grief over a dear friend’s suicide. The format of the book lends itself to either quick consumption or measured contemplation; sections range from one sentence to a little more than a page. Though this structure could make for a choppy text, the transitions between her various sources and streams of thought are mostly seamless, providing a pleasurable, even restful reading experience. The narrative is saturated with significant threads of sadness, but they don’t overwhelm. Rather, the unconventional format, combined with the author’s vast survey of the topic, provides fascinating food for thought.
A surprisingly hopeful meditation on why we shed tears.Pub Date: Nov. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-948226-44-8
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Catapult
Review Posted Online: Sept. 10, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
Sometimes a memoir writer makes the unfortunate decision to turn a potentially good 20-page article into a work many times that length. Goran's book is Exhibit A. Goran, a novelist (Mrs. Beautiful, not reviewed, etc.) and English professor at the University of Miami, co-led a weekly creative writing course there with Isaac Bashevis Singer for a decade (197888) while also helping translate and edit some of Singer's stories. His portrait of their friendship consists largely of seemingly verbatim transcripts of conversations; how they were remembered or recorded is never explained. Occasionally puckish or otherwise witty, these exchanges far too often consist of forgettable banter. Goran works diligently to capture an intense, decade-long friendship, and offers an occasional piquant observation (e.g., a reference to Singer's ``giddy savage world''). But for a teacher of writing, he also delivers himself of some peculiar, portentous prose (e.g., ``He remains for me the spokesman of our dilemma of unbelonging'') and cites some dubious second- and third-hand reports of ``acts'' and ``quotes'' (he quotes Singer as having remarked that Elie Wiesel, a fellow Jewish-European-American Nobel laureate, allegedly complained to a friend in Paris that ``Isaac Singer is the worst enemy of the Jews after Hitler''; Goran apparently made no effort to verify these words). At times, he does step back from their conversations to portray more vividly the very sad, even pitiable, man Singer had become at the end of his life: often lonely, misanthropic, melancholy, self-centered, and emotionally withholding. In his last few years (the octogenarian Singer died in 1991) his tendency towards absentmindedness and fearfulness became considerably more pronounced. But this memoir is sad too for what it reveals about the author, who seems largely unable to winnow out much of substance from a great deal of oral fluff.
Pub Date: Nov. 10, 1994
ISBN: 0-87338-506-3
Page Count: 176
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 1994
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Neither a strong, coherent spiritual guide nor a work of wisdom.
A spiritual guide for members of the New Church, a denomination whose teachings are from the book of Revelations.
“…If you stay with me, I will lead you into many truths, in which you never thought to be possible,” Emmanuel writes, and many “truths” are indeed revealed in this wordy volume. According to the author, man is a little world, and living within him are spirits and angels. Man has no thoughts of his own, and each individual is a little heaven and a little hell. The closer man draws to the Lord, the more he receives from the Lord. The book proceeds thusly, in a stream-of-conscious format with no paragraph breaks or organizing principle, aside from chapter headings. It’s as if James Joyce decided to confront spiritual issues while abandoning his strong imagery and innovative language. In general, the author seems to strive toward a pure connection with God without the filter of a self to interpret it. However, this results in a lack of an authoritative voice. Emmanuel takes on a variety of issues simultaneously without unpacking them to unleash their wisdom. It’s not that he makes false claims or that the cited scripture is inaccurate, but the many rhetorical questions that he attempts to answer are contradictory and render the spiritual questions meaningless. A beginning summary states that this book was written for members of the New Church, which, in the book of Revelations, is the New Jerusalem coming down out of Heaven from the Lord. “The words are meant only for those who are seeking truths of the Kingdom of Heaven. If you are not seeking these truths…these words will make little sense to you,” Emmanuel writes. The words do sometimes make sense but the lack of organization makes it impossible for them to serve as a guide to God’s wisdom.
Neither a strong, coherent spiritual guide nor a work of wisdom.Pub Date: May 23, 2007
ISBN: 978-1-4257-5563-8
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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