I’m not really familiar with any of Claudia Rankine’s work outside of this slim volume, so I can’t really say if it is representative of her typical style of writing. I can say that, having not read anything else by her, I’ve honestly never read a book like this one. It’s very difficult to categorize. It’s a book of poems in someways; it’s also maybe just one long book-length poem. It’s also kind of an essay collection. A couple of sections are written in screenplay format. And, printed on high-gloss paper in full color, it’s a work of collage, an art-object as much as it is a book. Throughout this book, leaping in an out of lyrically beautiful sketches to viscerally angry essays to chaotic images, Rankine creates a kaleidoscopic, dazzling, unsettling and, ultimately, incredibly powerful meditation on race in America. She discusses everything from everyday microaggressions to the murder of Trayvon Martin to the media coverage of Serena Williams to the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. It’s an astonishing piece of work. It’s also around a hundred-and-forty pages, with a lot of white space and a lot of pictures and big text. In some ways, it’s a fast read; in other ways, it’s a book where you’ll need to pace yourself because of the raw pain, rage and sorrow you’ll be experiencing and the depth of thought it will provoke. And, yes, it is seven years old now, but it’s just as gripping and bracing as it must have been then. Her meditations on Obama’s presidency are extra painful because we’ve now lived through Trump’s. Her discussions of Serena Williams and the media coverage of her feel like with only minor tweaks you could make the text about Simone Biles and the recent backlash against her at the Olympics. And as for the sections on police violence, well, you don’t need me to tell you about that. It’s really a must-read, in my opinion, one of the best books that I’ve come across in a long time. And it’s got one of the best endings ever as well; I think I’m comfortable saying that it’s the best ending I’ve ever read in a non-fiction book. That last line is a knock-out. Pick this one up; I can’t recommend it highly enough. 4 stars.
tl;dr – part poetry, part essay, part collage art object, but all brilliant; an exploration of race in America that will unsettle and compel you from start to finish. 4 stars.