The Curator: a book for remembering this is all made up
universal human truths, a book for the times, and why Bernie Sanders can still get it
When Donny T was first elected to the highest office of this great nation in November 2016, I was in my first semester of graduate school. My management professor, a young hunky kind of business guy who wore tailored suits and self-confidence like a weapon, said that if T Man were elected, he would give us all A’s, such was his assurance. He eventually walked back that statement hard and instead bribed us with an open bar tab after class. But his faith in voters - and ours - was irrevocably shaken. The ivory tower cracks were now fissures.
Since that day, I have tried many times to understand people I disagree with. It can be incredibly hard to see outside of yourself - this is a universal human truth. During that Christmas break, a grad school friend, Thulani, and I visited Museum Row in LA. Thulani is from Zimbabwe1 and was (is) wise beyond his years, having lived on two continents and in multiple US states. We were talking about something political, and I said, I sometimes challenge myself: what am I missing? what is it that I don’t understand about them?2
Thulani stopped. I’ve never thought of it that way.
As the Cheeto cabinet announcements roll in, we suffer one farce after the other (a sex predator as Attorney General! a national security risk for National Intelligence!). I oscillate between rage and apathy. I have settled on an aggressive need to nest as my balm - to sink deep into home isolation for a while, cozifying my physical space, filtering what I consume and who I engage with. I want to understand, but this is all I see every time I shut my eyes
IT IS SO HARD THIS TIME AROUND.
Dramatic? Maybe. Yet, I know I cannot give up. We cannot give up. No politician is perfect, but certainly, we have a right to fight for something better than a rapist.
Chani recently shared this video of Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders in 2003 breaking down the success of the Republican party to a group of rapt teenagers, and oh I feel dirty. I am sure this video will never reach the ears of those who need it, but maybe it will arm the rest of us when it comes time to react in love rather than in fear (or greed).
a book for remembering humans will always find something to fight about, and we can get through this
Reading is difficult. Writing about books feels trivial. Grief, that’s what it is.
still, I missed you.
how are you?
what books or people or activities are giving you comfort right now?3
have you been able to read?
Since last Tuesday, I’ve managed about 50 pages max, mostly of The Historian which is suffering one of my longest reading dry spells of all time, poor thing. In my desire to do something other than rewatch Gilmore Girls for the 100th time, I turned to non-fiction with Say Nothing by Patrick Radden Keefe.
There is no better perspective shift than a conflict story in which you have no stake. Say Nothing is about the Troubles in Northern Ireland, a civil conflict spanning decades and borders that led to thousands of casualties and a peace treaty favoring imperialism. While the Troubles were not directly about religion or ethnicity, the Irish drew battle lines between Protestants and Catholics, loyalists and nationalists, creating deep identity markers as the stakes. Each side feels it their duty to protect their own way of life - Protestants in Northern Ireland consumed with fear the Catholics will outbreed them, the Catholics feeling violently oppressed in their own country, and everyone struggling for the same meager economic opportunities.
Keefe knows how to hook you by making the political personal, opening the story with the abduction of Jean McConville, and introducing us to a cast of “characters” with human complexity rather than generalizing the tale. I see both sides, but mostly, I see fear. There is more to unite the Irish than tear them apart, yet here they are fighting each other rather than their true enemy (imperialism, colonialism, capitalism, the wealthy).
Sound familiar?
The thing is, writers see through people. They see through societies, through those in power, and through our made-up stories to the truth beneath. I listen when people like Patrick Radden Keefe or Octavia Butler or Margaret Atwood or Don Winslow get political because I trust they’ve done their human and historical research; that they see something those in it do not - the forest for the trees.
What better prophets of our time?
reading 📖→
re: above, I am determined to finish The Historian, but the prose lulls me to sleep!! Not boring, but beautiful and haunting, and I just fade away into the pillows… perhaps this is one best savored anyway
re: above, Say Nothing on audio. The narrator’s heavy Irish accent can be difficult to parse, but it’s riveting nonetheless. It was selected as a Times best book of the century, and I can see why.
Two library holds came in, Our Evenings by Alan Hollinghurst and The Book of Love by Kelly Link, but with my focus issues, I haven’t started either. Thinking I might rather start with Hollinghurst’s beloved The Line of Beauty rather than getting caught up in new releases… If you’ve read either, let me know what you think.
book news and restacks📰→
Sales surge for dystopian books after Trump election victory (The Guardian)
a list of Post-Election Reading (Tertulia)
- ’s list": Here’s What I’m Not Going To Do This Time (Substack)
- ’s remarkable insights: Boy books, girl books, and the politics of reading (Substack)
Orbital by Samantha Harvey took the Booker crown, and boy is this book controversial, which makes me want to read it even more, natch (also, it’s in paperback already, god bless).
Esquire surprisingly has great taste in new fall books
We’re halfway through, but there is still time to celebrate nonfiction November (Book Riot)
and cats 🐈⬛→
the face of someone who went missing for 20 minutes 😑
let’s chat 👻→
tell me what you are doing post-election to get through the feels
do you have a favorite historical non-fiction book to recommend?
what are you reading currently, and is it any good?
in case you missed it 🖤
This newsletter contains affiliate links. If you purchase using one of the links above, I will earn a baby-sized commission at no cost to you. Comment, share, repost, upgrade to paid, or buy me a coffee to support my work. Follow me @ thebookcreep on Instagram for pretty book pictures. Your support (monetary or not) is why I keep going, so thank you.
See you around the bookshelf!
and has an amazing clothing brand you should check out, The Rad Black Kids
This is a very bad paraphrasing of what I probably did say but you get it
or perhaps you are elated at the election results. in that case, I hope you get what you voted for. as much as I would love to see my personal beliefs vindicated, I care too much about this country to cheer for our collective demise. Project 2025 can suck a D though.
I cut my media/news consumption to zero beginning the am after the election. I was a news/political junkie. It is wonderfully freeing. Only get on the iPad for email and to read you and my other Substack book lovers. Non-fiction: Have you ever read The Swerve? I loved it. Just finished Creation Lake by Rachel Kushner. Not sure what I think of it. Thinking maybe you mentioned reading it? Back to the Swerve—it includes the story of the book lover who saved the last copy of Lucretius’ The Nature of Things, which is also a fun read. Lucretius was a trip—very comforting for me.
Okay, but where did kitty go? How do they hide all the glorious fluff?
Thank you for this, it was a beautiful read. I saw that Bernie video that CHANI posted. So infuriating and I also want to hug him. He has the best accent.