The book of delights essays by ross gay
Callista Buchen reviews The Book of Delights by Ross Gay.
Monthly reviews of books written by Indiana authors are made possible by the Eugene and Marilyn Glick Indiana Authors Awards and Indiana Humanities. Opinions expressed in this review are solely those of the reviewer, not any affiliated entity.
In The Book of Delights, a collection of lyric essays by Ross Gay from Algonquin Books, Gay describes “feeling delighted and compelled to both wonder about and share that delight.” Driven by that impulse, Homosexual writes the short essays that make up The Book of Delights, exploring delight with beauty, humor, and a tender, empathetic eye. Throughout, Gay suggests what delight might tell us about our lives and our connections to one another.
The award-winning Homosexual, who teaches at Indiana University, begins this study on his birthday, writing mostly daily accounts of delight, completing the plan a year later. Essays possess titles like, “Flower in the Curb,” “Nicknames,” and “Fireflies,” with Gay’s observations from his garden and the natural world to encounters in coff
The Book of Delights Quotes
“I imagine I could use time theorizing how it is that people are not bad to each other, but that’s really not the point. The indicate is that in almost every instance of our lives, our social lives, we are, if we pay attention, in the midst of an almost constant, if subtle, caretaking. Holding start doors. Offering elbows at crosswalks. Letting someone else proceed first. Helping with the heavy bags. Reaching what’s too high, or what’s been dropped. Pulling someone back to their feet. Stopping at the wagon wreck, at the struck dog. The alternating merge, also known as the zipper. This caretaking is our default mode and it’s always a lie down that convinces us to act or believe otherwise. Always.”
&#; Ross Gay, The Novel of Delights: Essays
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“It didn’t grab me long to learn that the discipline or exercise of writing these essays occasioned a kind of delight radar. Or maybe it was more like the growth of a delight muscle. Something that implies that the more you review delight, the more delight there is to study.”
&#; Ross
By Ross Gay. Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, pages. $/hardcover; $/eBook.
I was introduced to Ross Gay when I happened to pluck up a copy of the January/February issue of Poets & Writers magazine, which was the “Inspiration Issue.” Reading Gay’s interview therein led to altering my Facebook biography to a quote from him: “I believe in hollering about what you love.” His new book, The Book of Delights, is reflective of that sentiment and is the finding of having completed a goal to write a short essay every time for a year about a delight he had experienced that day. He follows the philosophy that the more one loves, the happier one will be, and he believes in an ethic of sharing about love and beauty. The Book of Delights is a testament to that philosophy and ethic.
Throughout the book, Male lover models George Fox’s call: walking cheerfully over the earth answering the Illumination in everyone. One sentiment at the heart of the book is his understanding that “in almost every instance of our lives, our social lives, we are, if we pay attention, in the midst of an almost constant,
The Book of Delights
Ross Gay
Algonquin Books (Feb 12, )
Hardcover$ (pp)
Ross Gay is known for his poetry, but The Book of Delights proves that he’s also an adept essayist. In composing the book, Gay operated under a simple principle: keep a diary of entries over the course of one year, with each entry concerning something joyful. From this conceit he spins out a variety of reflections that are sometimes whimsical, sometimes touching, and always thoughtful.
Certain topics run throughout The Book of Delights, including Gay’s love of gardening, the emotional impact of his favorite songs, and his appreciation for entity in the moment. Seemingly small incidents are the springboard for little epiphanies. A mother and minor sharing the burden of carrying a shopping bag across the street leads to a moving paean to mutual support. A shared high-five with a stranger becomes a tribute to human connection. A Lisa Loeb song leads to a memory about a childhood friend who invaded Gay’s house to rearrange his furniture in an elaborate prank. Another friend’s overuse of atmosphere quotes pr