2024~20 Book of Delights

Ross Gay. 2019.

A series of short essays written as part of the author's project to notice things to take delight in, this is an easy book to read.  At times, he twists the project on its end in an effort to make something not delightful seem delightful, but I found that mostly charming and who am I am to be policing his feel-good project, anyhow?

That said, I didn't really relate to this book.  For example, he several times talks about his perceptions of American culture as being devoid of touch.  He laments how people don't touch him in public, saying that he thinks because he is a large Black man that people see him as "off limits" for physical contact.  What I found surprising is how he universalizes this to American culture in general.  I definitely took pause, because it has never been my experience that people in the US thought my body was off-limits for touch.  For sure people I hardly know will often hug me, grab my hand, or touch my shoulder or back in caring ways.  But also, I am regularly jostled or moved out of people's way by people physically touching my body to get by me or to take my place.  I am also still often touched in ways I do not find comfortable, although this is less frequent than when I was younger.  But still, I have had people--actually almost exclusively men--touch me in offensive ways and I would say that I consider all of this touching to be part of American culture that is all too comfortable touching me, 

Reading his thoughts on this topic reminded me how very different his experience of the country is than mine.  I think that it is this fundamentally different experience that likely led to my general lack of enthusiasm about the book--perhaps not so much because his experience of the world is so different than mine, so much as it was that the delights didn't resonate with me.  The touch example was just one example of several.

​Not recommended.

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