A brilliant history of the orange that, like citrus, defies classification.
Goh uncovers the history of empires inside a ubiquitous fruit.
“I follow the orange because it offers a model for a hybrid existence and I, too, seek my own meaning in the world,” writes Goh in her multifaceted narration of citrus. She follows the history of the orange in research that spans continents, centuries, and legends. We learn of the orange’s mythic origins in China, the many Silk Roads that brought citrus to Europe, and the shorelines that European colonizers planted with the scurvy-defying fruits. Goh demonstrates how the history of the orange is a history of colonialism, a history of exoticism, and one of convenience. We learn of the bubonic plague, when orange peels were dried and used to mask the smell of sickness. In the 2020 pandemic, the author bought bags of oranges with gloved hands and a masked visage, the fruit distant from its origins, made clinical under fluorescent lights. Artfully interwoven in the narrative is Goh’s own history and that of her family. In rural China, the author meets her relatives, though they speak a dialect unknown to her. In Malaysia, she visits her aging grandmother and discovers pomelo orchards in the wake of tin extraction. And she writes of Ireland, the place of her upbringing and her mother’s family, where oranges are shipped across land and water to meet the desires of citrus-hungry consumers. “Per person, oranges are the most consumed fruit in the world,” she writes, and in these pages the fruit is seen across many essential parts of human history. Oranges expand into metaphors—the way we discuss family trees, hybridity, and naturalization are deconstructed, and their citrine trail reckoned with. Goh’s quest for self-knowledge mirrors the journey of citrus itself. In smart, engrossing prose, Goh teaches us as much about the fruits as about ourselves.
A brilliant history of the orange that, like citrus, defies classification.Pub Date: May 6, 2025
ISBN: 9781963108231
Page Count: -
Publisher: Tin House
Review Posted Online: March 4, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2025
PERSPECTIVES
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.
The veteran actor, comedian, and banjo player teams up with the acclaimed illustrator to create a unique book of cartoons that communicates their personalities.
Martin, also a prolific author, has always been intrigued by the cartoons strewn throughout the pages of the New Yorker. So when he was presented with the opportunity to work with Bliss, who has been a staff cartoonist at the magazine since 1997, he seized the moment. “The idea of a one-panel image with or without a caption mystified me,” he writes. “I felt like, yeah, sometimes I’m funny, but there are these other weird freaks who are actually funny.” Once the duo agreed to work together, they established their creative process, which consisted of working forward and backward: “Forwards was me conceiving of several cartoon images and captions, and Harry would select his favorites; backwards was Harry sending me sketched or fully drawn cartoons for dialogue or banners.” Sometimes, he writes, “the perfect joke occurs two seconds before deadline.” There are several cartoons depicting this method, including a humorous multipanel piece highlighting their first meeting called “They Meet,” in which Martin thinks to himself, “He’ll never be able to translate my delicate and finely honed droll notions.” In the next panel, Bliss thinks, “I’m sure he won’t understand that the comic art form is way more subtle than his blunt-force humor.” The team collaborated for a year and created 150 cartoons featuring an array of topics, “from dogs and cats to outer space and art museums.” A witty creation of a bovine family sitting down to a gourmet meal and one of Dumbo getting his comeuppance highlight the duo’s comedic talent. What also makes this project successful is the team’s keen understanding of human behavior as viewed through their unconventional comedic minds.
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.Pub Date: Nov. 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-26289-9
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2020
PERSPECTIVES
A frank and funny but uneven essay collection about neurodiversity.
An experimental, illustrated essay collection that questions neurotypical definitions of what is normal.
From a young age, writer and comedian Myers has been different. In addition to coping with obsessive compulsive disorder and panic attacks, she struggled to read basic social cues. During a round of seven minutes in heaven—a game in which two players spend seven minutes in a closet and are expected to kiss—Myers misread the romantic advances of her best friend and longtime crush, Marley. In Paris, she accidentally invited a sex worker to join her friends for “board games and beer,” thinking he was simply a random stranger who happened to be hitting on her. In community college, a stranger’s request for a pen spiraled her into a panic attack but resulted in a tentative friendship. When the author moved to Australia, she began taking notes on her colleagues in an effort to know them better. As the author says to her co-worker, Tabitha, “there are unspoken social contracts within a workplace that—by some miracle—everyone else already understands, and I don’t….When things Go Without Saying, they Never Get Said, and sometimes people need you to Say Those Things So They Understand What The Hell Is Going On.” At its best, Myers’ prose is vulnerable and humorous, capturing characterization in small but consequential life moments, and her illustrations beautifully complement the text. Unfortunately, the author’s tendency toward unnecessary capitalization and experimental forms is often unsuccessful, breaking the book’s otherwise steady rhythm.
A frank and funny but uneven essay collection about neurodiversity.Pub Date: Oct. 28, 2025
ISBN: 9780063381308
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Sept. 12, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2025
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