A friend lent this to me two years ago and I’ll never forgive myself for sitting on it for that long. What wisdom he’d been holding all this time, that I had sitting on my bookcase, untouched. I have not been this blown away by a collection of essays in a very long time. Absolutely impeccable, astounding work. I have a pages long note in my phone with sentences I’ve pulled from this book, desperately hopeful I’ll feel the same way when I read them again, and again.

The emotional spectrum that Abdurraqib expertly holds the reins of thoroughly flabbergasted me. From essay to essay, even within the stories themselves, readers are confronted with sadness, hopefulness, nostalgia, and a certain kind of rhetorical, lyrical freedom. “The Weeknd and the Future of Loveless Sex” rendered me absolutely bewildered. Every single Fleetwood Mac, music fan in general, should sprint to read “Rumours and the Currency of Heartbreak.” At this point in my life, right now, I read “Brief Notes on Staying // No One is Making Their Best Work When They Want to Die” exactly when I needed it the most.

There is an otherness here that I cannot comprehend. His words about blackness and churches and gospel, place and body, basketball even, concepts that have never touched me. But I can appreciate loneliness. And fear. Abdurraqib writes specifically for those who are listening, but he creates a home in this book for people that need it.


5/5 This will be in the top 5 books I read all year, if not my life.