I kind of wanted to claim this one as “The Collection” but it’s only three stories and two of them are connected, so that felt like cheating. Much like I felt cheated out of a good time reading this book. I think I’ve just got too much going on in my life and all I want are engaging, easy reads. Or even just engaging.
So, Asymmetry. Makes kind of sense. There are three stories in here but one of them is fifty perfect of the book. It and the second story are about seriously asymmetrical balances of power. I dunno how the third one fits. Also I keep typo-ing it as Assymetry which I like better.
The first story is about a young woman named Alice who ends up in a loose relationship with a much older, very famous writer named Ezra. Like she doesn’t have his phone number kind of loose – he calls her from a blocked number, for what seems to play out like years. Felt like years, anyway. Whatever.
The second story was the most interesting of the three by far, in part for reasons that had nothing to do with this book. See, my soon-to-be-husband is Turkish and when I want to poke the bear I refer to southeastern Turkey as “Kurdistan”. In this section Amar, an Iraqi-American, is traveling to visit his brother in what must be northern Iraq because he straight up only calls where he’s going Kurdistan. It’s the little things that get me. Also, his interspersed story of being detained and rejected in Heathrow is infuriating. And I was intrigued by his “origin” story of sorts – he was born on an American airline in American airspace but not on American soil. Nobody really knew what nationality that gave him, so he has both American and Iraqi. For the most part, he travels on the American passport.
The third chapter flips back to our writer, Ezra, as he is interviewed by and tries to hit on a young woman writing an article about his life as told by his favorite music. It’s seriously gross.
Anyway. Read the middle part! Ignore the others.
Bingo Square: Listicle (NPR’s Best Books of 2018)
