The Book of Delights by Ross GayMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
There is so much pleasure, often nestled up against hard edges, in The Book of Delights. It's a short book with essays that meander, but it fully lives up to its title. Gay is having fun- sometimes with language, sometimes with subject, sometimes darkly and sometimes in a bittersweet way. So many contemporary essays feel heavy with the burden of creating art. Gay simply explores, and the result is creative, surprising, smart art.
At one point, Gay talks about how Black people in America are often reduced to their suffering, and he quips that the joke is on the reader, who is reading a book of a Black man's delight. Especially in this moment, when books about Black suffering and books that appeal to white readers looking to "fix" themselves or history are trending across the country, this book that dedicates itself to illuminating that there are good things that are sometimes also difficult things, and that it is a gift to consider them with respect, humor, poetry, reverence, nostalgia, etc., is particularly appreciated.
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