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What We Lose
A Novel
eBook - 2017
"From a debut 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 country. Raised in Pennsylvania, Zinzi Clemmons's heroine 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"-- Provided by publisher.
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Publisher:
New York : Viking, 2017
ISBN:
9780735221727
0735221723
9780735221710
0735221723
9780735221710
Characteristics:
1 online resource
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Add a Comment"The void is my constant companion, no matter what I do. Nothing will fill it, and it will never go away." Impressive debut novel by Zinzi Clemmons, whose mom is South African and whose dad is American. It's short, but packed with insight and a strong sense of loss. Clemmons has publicly called out both Junot Diaz and Lena Dunham (Google it!).
Depressing account of death and other loss in a young woman's family. With the title, "What We Lose," you can expect this novel to be sad and is was. The author and protagonist come from a multi-cultural background, but I didn't find it especially informative or insightful.
A touching and brilliant novel that unravels in short bursts and spurts, and doesn't follow a traditional format or storyline. If you've had to face the pain of watching your parent(s) get sick, or pass away, this book will hit you right in the solar plexus. Parts of it had me outright sobbing. It's a short book, and a quick read. I got through it in one Sunday afternoon.
Now that I've finally got around to reading What We Lose, I'm disappointed to say that I didn't enjoy it. I understand the overall premise of the story but it was all over the place and read more like a culmination of journal entries rather than a novel. Now I won't go as far and say that I'd never read anything by Zinzi Clemmons again, especially since this is her debut novel.
not sure why I picked this up but a memoir that just did not give me anything substantial.
A coming-of-age story that tackles the various stages of grief and growing insecurities as a biracial woman.
Paced with contemplatives of a life with losses big and some ever so slight. Loss of a strong identity being lighter skinned, loss of a parent, loss of security, of relationships, or loss of a time that carried a different part of oneself. There is a new truth one gains from the elements of the normal losses one experiences in life and author Clemmons takes us lightly through these in her character Thandi.
If you love to delve deep into a character's head, Zinzi Clemmons has a narrator for you. Thandi feels like an outsider in so many ways, split between multiple cultures and histories and desires. This coming-of-age story throws you into Thandi's perspective and leaves you full of emotions.