Five Stories to Soothe a Weary Soul https://ift.tt/hmVMfHw
In a time when it increasingly feels like we’re powerless against the injustice around us, these stories remind us of the impact each of us can have by showing up – the collective, after all, is composed of individuals who do just that.
Set in the farmlands of Minnesota, Rosalie Iron Wing returns to the woods where she was raised after her white husband dies and their son inherits the farm. She revisits her life as she spends a winter in the rustic shack where her father passed on his family’s Indigenous ways, before his death sent her into foster care and white life. It is in these treacherous months she reclaims what was taken.
Of course, this book does deal with the horrors inflicted upon Indigenous peoples and the ways in which white supremacy dehumanizes us all, but if you’ve ever wondered how you’ll step out of the generational cycles in which you find yourself trapped, Diane Wilson’s The Seed Keeper shows how it takes only one person — one woman — to step into a new light.
Mia Warren flouts the long-established norms of Shaker Heights when she arrives with her daughter, Pearl, and the esteemed Richardson family that has anchored the seemingly progressive Cleveland suburb is upended when the family matriarch, Elena, fixates on exposing Mia’s past. With an underlying theme that spotlights the hypocrisy of complacent liberalism, Celeste Ng weaves together multiple storylines to show the complexity of love, family, belonging, and identity.
Writer Monique Grant has questions, not the least of which is why the aging, reclusive Hollywood icon Evelyn Hugo chose her as the reporter to whom Evelyn will reveal the secrets of her glamorous, evasive life, which includes marriages to seven different men. Monique settles for, “Who was the love of your life?” thinking that tragedy and struggle with commitment plagued Ms. Hugo.
Like Monique, I approached Evelyn Hugo’s story expecting a simplistic and frivolous beach read, but in Taylor Jenkins Reid’s Seven Husbands, I had the rare opportunity to see myself, a queer bisexual woman in a straight-presenting marriage, depicted in literature. More than checking a box for representation, Reid unearths the complexity of existing outside societal norms and the challenges faced historically that continue to plague people today — don’t miss the numerous times Evelyn is shown hiding her Cuban heritage to fit into a white world. This story has the potential to encourage an understanding of and compassion for the struggles of the LGTBQ+ community in a way I haven’t seen presented in literature: namely what a privilege it is to be able to live as one’s whole, complete self and the necessity of adjusting personal perspective in favor of liberation.
Nora Seed has nothing left to live for, or so she believes, and in a depressive episode overrun by regret for where she has ended up, Nora takes action to end her life. In the moments before an overdose claims her, Nora is given the opportunity to see the numerous possibilities had she made different choices, ultimately realizing that breath in one’s lungs means there is hope for a different future – but does she realize this too late?
What if women were the dominant gender? Naomi Alderman’s The Power explores the answer in a thrilling, suspenseful, and captivating read that challenged everything I thought I knew about gender, power, and humanity. Told as a historical novel set in the 21st Century that is 5,000 years in the past, characters from around the world – Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Moldova, India, and more – find power within themselves, exposing the ways patriarchal culture has been fabricated to preserve control.
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