What We Lose

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From an author of rare, haunting power, a stunning novel about a young African American woman coming of age a deeply felt meditation on race, sex, family, and countryRaised in Pennsylvania, Thandi views the world of her mother s childhood in Johannesburg as both impossibly distant and ever present She is an outsider wherever she goes, caught between being black and white, American and not She tries to connect these dislocated pieces of her life, and as her mother succumbs to cancer, Thandi searches for an anchor someone, or something, to love In arresting and unsettling prose, we watch Thandi s life unfold, from losing her mother and learning to live without the person who has most profoundly shaped her existence, to her own encounters with romance and unexpected motherhood Through exquisite and emotional vignettes, Clemmons creates a stunning portrayal of what it means to choose to live, after loss An elegiac distillation, at once intellectual and visceral, of a young woman s understanding of absence and identity that spans continents and decades, What We Lose heralds the arrival of a virtuosic new voice in fiction. New Read [ What We Lose ] author [ Zinzi Clemmons ] – kino-fada.fr I ve often thought that being a light skinned black woman is like being a well dressed person who is also homeless You may be able to pass in mainstream society, appearing acceptable to others, even desired But in reality you have nowhere to rest, nowhere to feel safe Even while you re out in public, feeling fine and free, inside you cannot shake the feeling of rootlessness Others may envy you, but this masks the fact that at night, there is nowhere safe for you, no place to call your own. I ve often thought that being a light skinned black woman is like being a well dressed person who is also homeless You may be able to pass in mainstream society, appearing acceptable to others, even desired But in reality you have nowhere to rest, nowhere to feel safe Even while you re out in public, feeling fine and free, inside you cannot shake the feeling of rootlessness Others may...Sometimes there is no reason to write a review. so it feels to me I mean if you finished a book that you are somewhat neutral about appreciate it aware it s thought provoking has depth deals with loss of a mother and a father who emotionally distances himself add struggling with racial cultural identity for a young African American..AND.you notice over 500 people on Goodreads have already written a review AND..You look..at a few reviews and discover. Sometimes there is no reason to write a review. so it feels to me I mean if you finished a book that you are somewhat neutral about appreciate it aware it s thought provoking has depth deals with loss of a mother and a father who emotionally distances himself add struggling with racial cultural identity for a young African American..AND.you notice ...Albeit smart, intimate and well written, these qualities aren t why I ll remember this novel no, I ll remember What We Lose for its relatable depiction of grief, no matter how often I ve wanted to stop reading In this area of essays and important novels, when the representation of minorities in fiction is still so criminally inexistent, I love that this book exists, but looking back, that s not what I ll recall The intense sense of dread I feel when I read about the loss of a parent, that I Albeit smart, intimate and well written, these qualities aren t why I ll remember this novel no, I ll remember What We Lose for its relatable depiction of grief, no matter how often I ve wanted to stop reading In this area of essays and important novels, when...Book blog review with meditative, intimate and at times unsettling vignettes, What We Lose will leave you in a pensive state Thandi the heroine of this novel, is the only child of her mother a coloured South African and father a light skinned African American who is very aware of her privileges multicultural background Readers follow Thandi on her journey from childhood to adulthood as she navigates what it means to be a black woma Book blog review with meditative, intimate and at times unsettling vignettes, What We L...Throughout my life, coming of age novels peppered themselves onto bookshelves whenever I ventured In these novels, heartbreak, love, loss, and joys scattered their footprints, asking me to grasp the main character s journey by finding similarity.Most of the time, they failed as they offered two hundred andpages of a life I witnessed on television and movie matinees Bottled in blonde ponytails and bouncy cu...A very contemporary feeling book that tackles modern day themes but also about the past and how both have a habit of interesecting each other Thandi tries to break the mould of living and honouring the past of her South African background and paving a new future This book tackles race, tradition and it s implications in melding it with her life in America Sometimes she is torn between the two worlds I feel like the main issues that are tackled here are concerning race and grieving and she tr A very contemporary feeling book that tackles modern day themes but also about the past and how both have a habit of interesecting each other Thandi tries to break the mould of living and honourin...I jumped on this one for a buddy read in the Newest Literary Fiction group This was a quick read but a confusing one I feel like the description led me to expect a pretty straight forward novel about a South African childhood and loss Instead it reads like a braided essay in longform, a memoir of sorts,...What We Lose is a weird little novel Writing in the form of stream of consciousness What We Lose is a different kind of book about loss and grief I must admit I had trouble connecting with this book, maybe it was the stream of consciousness writing style or maybe it was the fact that the chapters moved back and forth through time One chapter her mother s alive and in the very next chapter she s dead and then she s aliv...When I read something like this my first thought is that it s trying way too hard Some chapters were a single line Some were a picture or a chart Some chapters were news articles of actual events in South Africa Some were beautiful, some were bizarre, and some were just deliberately crude I m not saying that these things in themselves aren t interesting or valuable, I m just saying that they don t belong together within a single 200 page book, let alone one with the word NOVEL printed bol When I read something like this my first thought is that it s trying way too hard Some chapters were a single line Some were a picture or a chart Some chapters were news articles of actual events in South Africa Some were beautiful, some were bizarre, and some were ...4.5 stars, rounded up This novel is so beautiful and smart I totally loved it Here s my full review

What We Lose
  • English
  • 08 December 2018
  • Hardcover
  • 213 pages
  • 0735221715
  • Zinzi Clemmons
  • What We Lose