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Too Much and Not the Mood: Essays
**A Globe and Mail Best Book of the Year**
From one of Canada’s most distinctive and intelligent emerging voices, a heartfelt collection of essays in Durga Chew-Bose’s captivating and truly inimitable style.
In Too Much and Not the Mood, Durga Chew-Bose flings us headlong into her most intimate philosophical, and occasionally brooding, thoughts. The result is a lyrical and piercingly insightful collection of essays and her own brand of essay-meets-prose poetry about identity and culture.
Reflective and highly astute, Chew-Bose invites readers to join in her search for a clearer understanding of who we are and the world we live in. This is a beautiful and surprising exploration of what it means to be a young first-generation writer today, shutting out the din in order to find her own voice.
Exhibiting the confidence of Lena Dunham, the honesty of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, and the extraordinary vision of Zadie Smith, Too Much and Not the Mood is a stunning debut from an author who is sure to become one of this generation’s most esteemed voices.
From one of Canada’s most distinctive and intelligent emerging voices, a heartfelt collection of essays in Durga Chew-Bose’s captivating and truly inimitable style.
In Too Much and Not the Mood, Durga Chew-Bose flings us headlong into her most intimate philosophical, and occasionally brooding, thoughts. The result is a lyrical and piercingly insightful collection of essays and her own brand of essay-meets-prose poetry about identity and culture.
Reflective and highly astute, Chew-Bose invites readers to join in her search for a clearer understanding of who we are and the world we live in. This is a beautiful and surprising exploration of what it means to be a young first-generation writer today, shutting out the din in order to find her own voice.
Exhibiting the confidence of Lena Dunham, the honesty of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, and the extraordinary vision of Zadie Smith, Too Much and Not the Mood is a stunning debut from an author who is sure to become one of this generation’s most esteemed voices.
221 pages, Kindle Edition
First published April 11, 2017
543 people are currently reading
24640 people want to read
About the author
Durga Chew-Bose
7 books390 followersDurga Chew-Bose is a Montreal-born writer. Her work has appeared in The Globe and Mail, Hazlitt, Filmmaker, The New Inquiry, and The Guardian, among other publications. She is the author of Too Much and Not the Mood.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 725 reviews
August 2, 2018
On April 11, 1931, Virginia Woolf ended her entry in A Writer’s Diary with the words “too much and not the mood.” She was describing how tired she was of correcting her own writing, of the “cramming in and the cutting out” to please other readers, wondering if she had anything at all that was truly worth saying.
The character of that sentiment, the attitude of it, inspired Durga Chew-Bose to write and collect her own work. The result is a lyrical and piercingly insightful collection of essays and her own brand of essay-meets-prose poetry about identity and culture.
I've been eager to finish Too Much and Not the Mood for awhile now, but was having trouble completing it because of the sheer length of the first essay. “Heart Museum,” while exquisitely written, was a lot longer than what I’m used to in essay collections, and as the author said: “This piece, for example, is largely composed of interceptions. Starting somewhere, ending elsewhere. Testing the obnoxious reach of my tangents. Likely failing.”
So I was quite dismayed to see that this book was starting to fail to absorb my full attention, especially since the writing started out so strong. When I first began reading the book, I was savoring each page and letting the words really sink into my mind. However, the author's thoughts were quite erratic and hard to follow because of the tendency to skip from thought to thought, and so it turned out to be kind of hard to remember what was mentioned just a couple of pages ago.
Also, my mind kept roaming off the page, searching for something meaningless to distract me, “I’m proficient at having my attention drawn away,” which I usually take as a sign that I'm not vibing with the book. In the end I decided to skip the first essay halfway through while hoping for a better connection with the second one... with no success.
Thankfully, though, Durga Chew-Bose was featured in the most recent episode of the Rookie Podcast, and I was instantly enchanted by her voice and use of words, so that confirmed my decision to give her book another chance.
Like I've mentioned before, the writing is terribly detailed in the introducing essay, which I personally don’t get along with well. (I really don't need to know the exact color of the pea soup you were eating that one afternoon.) So, since I like my writing specific but not detailed, I got along quite well with the following essays that were full of wisdom and grace while ringing so many undeniable truths (and also a lot shorter). And the only way I could describe the kind of specific I adore is with borrowing Hannah Kent's phrasing: “He loved the way she knew how to build things with words. She invented her own language to say what everyone else could only feel.’”
Speaking of which, here are some of my favorite passages in Too Much and Not the Mood that captured my attention in an instant:
“There’s strength in observing one’s miniaturization. That you are insignificant and prone to, and God knows, dumb about a lot. Because doesn’t smallness prime us to eventually take up space? For instance, the momentum gained from reading a great book. After after, sitting, sleeping, living in its consequence. A book that makes you feel, finally, latched on. Or after after we recover from a hike. From seeing fifteenth-century ruins and wondering how Machu Picchu was built when Incans had zero knowledge of the wheel. Smallness can make you feel extra porous. Extra ambitious. Like a small dog carrying an enormous branch clenched in its teeth, as if intimating to the world: Okay. Where to?”
This is so oddly on point that it made my heart sing.
“Nudging my mother’s eldest sister for details while she tells me a story about my grandparents. This too gauges smallness. The muscle that builds from yielding to my aunt Jennifer’s decades, to the scalloped edges of her memory, reacquaints me to my most atomic self: where I come from. Even when I was nothing, I was arriving.
This Christmas, Jennifer recorded a story about her parents for all the grandchildren on my mom’s side to keep forever. She titled it “Such Fine Parents.” The insistence of “Such” is not merely avowal, but love distinguished. She typed out the story and printed copies. She punched holes in each page and placed them one by one in red folders. I received mine in the mail and hurried to read it, only to be slowed down by tears every few sentences. The pull of ancestry. How without stint I could love someone I will never meet: my maternal grandmother. She died when my mother was fourteen years old. I was born sixteen years later, to the day.”
I love this so much I ended up rereading it a couple of times.
“There’s a type of inborn initiative that comes from having never been obligated to answer questions about the meaning of one’s name, or one’s country of so-called origin, or to explain that the way you look is generationally and geographically worlds apart from where you were born. Since childhood, there’s been an assumption that I owe strangers an answer when they inquire about matters I myself struggle to have words for, let alone understand.”
The essays in here touch upon so many important topics, from the Durga Chew-Bose's Indian heritage and Canadian childhood, to microaggressions and racism, on living alone, and summers in NYC with its stifling heat and abundance of opportunities. That is to say: My favorite pieces were the ones that explored a single theme and didn’t wander off with random thoughts. Plus, when the author stayed on track and gave a more personal side on things, I was instantly captivated.
All in all: Too Much and Not the Mood (my favorite title) was a fascinating take on writing and so much more that I'm beyond glad to have finally read.
3.5/5 stars
Note: I'm an Amazon Affiliate. If you're interested in buying Too Much and Not the Mood, just click on the image below to go through my link. I'll make a small commission!
Support creators you love. Buy a Coffee for nat (bookspoils) with Ko-fi.com/bookspoils
The character of that sentiment, the attitude of it, inspired Durga Chew-Bose to write and collect her own work. The result is a lyrical and piercingly insightful collection of essays and her own brand of essay-meets-prose poetry about identity and culture.
I've been eager to finish Too Much and Not the Mood for awhile now, but was having trouble completing it because of the sheer length of the first essay. “Heart Museum,” while exquisitely written, was a lot longer than what I’m used to in essay collections, and as the author said: “This piece, for example, is largely composed of interceptions. Starting somewhere, ending elsewhere. Testing the obnoxious reach of my tangents. Likely failing.”
So I was quite dismayed to see that this book was starting to fail to absorb my full attention, especially since the writing started out so strong. When I first began reading the book, I was savoring each page and letting the words really sink into my mind. However, the author's thoughts were quite erratic and hard to follow because of the tendency to skip from thought to thought, and so it turned out to be kind of hard to remember what was mentioned just a couple of pages ago.
Also, my mind kept roaming off the page, searching for something meaningless to distract me, “I’m proficient at having my attention drawn away,” which I usually take as a sign that I'm not vibing with the book. In the end I decided to skip the first essay halfway through while hoping for a better connection with the second one... with no success.
Thankfully, though, Durga Chew-Bose was featured in the most recent episode of the Rookie Podcast, and I was instantly enchanted by her voice and use of words, so that confirmed my decision to give her book another chance.
Like I've mentioned before, the writing is terribly detailed in the introducing essay, which I personally don’t get along with well. (I really don't need to know the exact color of the pea soup you were eating that one afternoon.) So, since I like my writing specific but not detailed, I got along quite well with the following essays that were full of wisdom and grace while ringing so many undeniable truths (and also a lot shorter). And the only way I could describe the kind of specific I adore is with borrowing Hannah Kent's phrasing: “He loved the way she knew how to build things with words. She invented her own language to say what everyone else could only feel.’”
Speaking of which, here are some of my favorite passages in Too Much and Not the Mood that captured my attention in an instant:
“There’s strength in observing one’s miniaturization. That you are insignificant and prone to, and God knows, dumb about a lot. Because doesn’t smallness prime us to eventually take up space? For instance, the momentum gained from reading a great book. After after, sitting, sleeping, living in its consequence. A book that makes you feel, finally, latched on. Or after after we recover from a hike. From seeing fifteenth-century ruins and wondering how Machu Picchu was built when Incans had zero knowledge of the wheel. Smallness can make you feel extra porous. Extra ambitious. Like a small dog carrying an enormous branch clenched in its teeth, as if intimating to the world: Okay. Where to?”
This is so oddly on point that it made my heart sing.
“Nudging my mother’s eldest sister for details while she tells me a story about my grandparents. This too gauges smallness. The muscle that builds from yielding to my aunt Jennifer’s decades, to the scalloped edges of her memory, reacquaints me to my most atomic self: where I come from. Even when I was nothing, I was arriving.
This Christmas, Jennifer recorded a story about her parents for all the grandchildren on my mom’s side to keep forever. She titled it “Such Fine Parents.” The insistence of “Such” is not merely avowal, but love distinguished. She typed out the story and printed copies. She punched holes in each page and placed them one by one in red folders. I received mine in the mail and hurried to read it, only to be slowed down by tears every few sentences. The pull of ancestry. How without stint I could love someone I will never meet: my maternal grandmother. She died when my mother was fourteen years old. I was born sixteen years later, to the day.”
I love this so much I ended up rereading it a couple of times.
“There’s a type of inborn initiative that comes from having never been obligated to answer questions about the meaning of one’s name, or one’s country of so-called origin, or to explain that the way you look is generationally and geographically worlds apart from where you were born. Since childhood, there’s been an assumption that I owe strangers an answer when they inquire about matters I myself struggle to have words for, let alone understand.”
The essays in here touch upon so many important topics, from the Durga Chew-Bose's Indian heritage and Canadian childhood, to microaggressions and racism, on living alone, and summers in NYC with its stifling heat and abundance of opportunities. That is to say: My favorite pieces were the ones that explored a single theme and didn’t wander off with random thoughts. Plus, when the author stayed on track and gave a more personal side on things, I was instantly captivated.
All in all: Too Much and Not the Mood (my favorite title) was a fascinating take on writing and so much more that I'm beyond glad to have finally read.
3.5/5 stars
Note: I'm an Amazon Affiliate. If you're interested in buying Too Much and Not the Mood, just click on the image below to go through my link. I'll make a small commission!
Support creators you love. Buy a Coffee for nat (bookspoils) with Ko-fi.com/bookspoils
May 22, 2017
Too much nonsense and I wasn't in the mood. This florid, contrived style of writing really didn't work for me. I bet that many intellectuals and pseudo-intellectuals will go bananas for this, but I am neither. I'm just a crab who likes books, and I did not like this one.
September 3, 2020
there are some books that make you feel like you're going through a slump, and some that make you want to take your time and savour it. Too Much and Not the Mood was the latter. it took me a long time to read it, but every few sentences i wanted to pause and reconsider my life. truly a gem.
full review to come!!
full review to come!!
April 11, 2017
My experience reading this (particularly Heart Museum, the first and longest essay) was a little like listening to a new album for the first time: I would either snag on a sentence and read it on repeat or I'd plow ahead and let the writing wash over me, see what feelings it inspired while intending to go back and revisit particular sections. The rest of the essays I read in one weekend and found easier to grasp. I also had read some of them when they were published in Buzzfeed (etc.) originally, so maybe that was part of why I felt like I was on steadier footing with them.
I love Durga's voice--it's so measured, intimate, and pretty, but also unrestrained and trenchant at surprising turns.
I love Durga's voice--it's so measured, intimate, and pretty, but also unrestrained and trenchant at surprising turns.
June 19, 2017
Mostly self-absorbed and rambling with a few gems of insight.
January 4, 2021
Exemplary, moving, and deeply resonant -- in content and composition. I find myself returning to bask and stretch in this exquisite prose time and time again.
March 1, 2018
one word review: overhyped
the author definitely has a way with words, though i'm unsure if this book epitomizes the creative process as much as it seems to demonstrate her ability to live seemingly free from the constraints most people live with, dare i say quite amazingly privileged... call me unconvinced of her skills, yet... she does plenty of hipster-doofus namedropping and listing off, in varying degrees of "look how cool i am!" the movies, artwork, music, and books she has "experienced"... her stories are rather sophomoric but show promise, as she does turn a phrase and pick the right word rather well in places... if she was a he, or if she was not a person/writer-of-color, i wonder at the level of praise the work would garner... yes, that may seem unfair, but she has the educational pedigree so judging her as we judge other writers with such academic backgrounds is fair, i say... just being a person of color doesn't afford you a bump, so to speak... i compare this to people who preach "diversity", which usually requires a rainbow of some sort in certain areas of society (skin color - even though we know 'race' is a fabrication so isn't skin color also mostly immaterial or at the very least misleading and oversimplistic?? - or gender, or sex, or religion)... not necessarily a bad idea, but when all your voices are, for example, middle class individuals who happen to have parents or grandparents from other non-white majority nations but no real life experience of poverty or oppression, really, how varied/diverse is the voice? when so much of America involves class divisions, how often are the poor voices left out and replaced by people of color in middle/upper classes who are so far removed from the poor but allow white America this false sense of "minority voice" because the person is 'of color'?? anyway... this book shows a writer with gifts, what she does with them remains to be seen...
the author definitely has a way with words, though i'm unsure if this book epitomizes the creative process as much as it seems to demonstrate her ability to live seemingly free from the constraints most people live with, dare i say quite amazingly privileged... call me unconvinced of her skills, yet... she does plenty of hipster-doofus namedropping and listing off, in varying degrees of "look how cool i am!" the movies, artwork, music, and books she has "experienced"... her stories are rather sophomoric but show promise, as she does turn a phrase and pick the right word rather well in places... if she was a he, or if she was not a person/writer-of-color, i wonder at the level of praise the work would garner... yes, that may seem unfair, but she has the educational pedigree so judging her as we judge other writers with such academic backgrounds is fair, i say... just being a person of color doesn't afford you a bump, so to speak... i compare this to people who preach "diversity", which usually requires a rainbow of some sort in certain areas of society (skin color - even though we know 'race' is a fabrication so isn't skin color also mostly immaterial or at the very least misleading and oversimplistic?? - or gender, or sex, or religion)... not necessarily a bad idea, but when all your voices are, for example, middle class individuals who happen to have parents or grandparents from other non-white majority nations but no real life experience of poverty or oppression, really, how varied/diverse is the voice? when so much of America involves class divisions, how often are the poor voices left out and replaced by people of color in middle/upper classes who are so far removed from the poor but allow white America this false sense of "minority voice" because the person is 'of color'?? anyway... this book shows a writer with gifts, what she does with them remains to be seen...
March 16, 2025
durga chew-bose made me cry, forty-five minutes into a flight from marseille to new york. i was leaving one home for another, leaving my french host family depuis quatre mois (or, my french grandparents as i began referring to them, who had just the night before read my farewell card out loud at the dinner table with such unexpected sincerity and warmth) for my real family. y'all, the way she writes about family...
these essays ended up unraveling the knot that had been building right below my throat for the last week or so. i bought this collection two weeks ago in anticipation of this knot; it felt like a betrayal at the time because i was still studying for my last french literature final exam, i was determined to be The Most Immersed in the language & the life because the big date de depart loomed. feeling guilty, i bought it from the only english language bookstore in town anyway -- i knew she'd make me cry, and she did. this is not to say durga chew-bose is out here tryna make you sad; the crying i'm talking about is a cathartic loosening that comes from reading such precision re: drawing emotional landscapes.
what i didn't expect was the tremendous relief - to feel seen, to learn how to pay attention, to read the last lines of the last essay.
how i feel about this collection, in her words -- "it still comes as a shock to me how irreversible life is. how there's no going back to whatever version of me existed before i saw That movie -- the kind that switches me on to new streaks of consciousness by showing me a woman I feel strangely, formerly, acquainted with."
these essays ended up unraveling the knot that had been building right below my throat for the last week or so. i bought this collection two weeks ago in anticipation of this knot; it felt like a betrayal at the time because i was still studying for my last french literature final exam, i was determined to be The Most Immersed in the language & the life because the big date de depart loomed. feeling guilty, i bought it from the only english language bookstore in town anyway -- i knew she'd make me cry, and she did. this is not to say durga chew-bose is out here tryna make you sad; the crying i'm talking about is a cathartic loosening that comes from reading such precision re: drawing emotional landscapes.
what i didn't expect was the tremendous relief - to feel seen, to learn how to pay attention, to read the last lines of the last essay.
how i feel about this collection, in her words -- "it still comes as a shock to me how irreversible life is. how there's no going back to whatever version of me existed before i saw That movie -- the kind that switches me on to new streaks of consciousness by showing me a woman I feel strangely, formerly, acquainted with."
May 12, 2019
This book reads like a stream of consciousness - random, flitting, unfiltered, and often unintelligible. I didn't find the comforting relatability in it promised by the rave reviews, just an abundance of confidence on the part of the author to write and publish all the random contents of her head with little regard for form, readability, or storytelling. I had to skip through Heart Museum because it was so supremely irritating and self-indulgent. Other pieces in the collection were not as alienating, but it all feels intentionally and self-consciously avant-garde in a way that's just not for me.
December 16, 2021
3.5/5. A mixed bag for me. Some essays I adored (I underlined so many passages in Part of a Greater Pattern, D As In, Since Living Alone and Tan Lines and I do think this collection is worth reading for those ones alone), some essays I thought were a little jumbled (the first one, Heart Museum, in particular, which I actually read last because I couldn't get into it the first time) and some very short ones I feel like I just didn't fully understand (Idea of Marriage, for example).
July 26, 2017
some devastatingly profound and beautiful writing, but some navel-gazing too pretentious and self-absorbed to bear (nook people???!?!?!?)
May 2, 2019
I learned that Lena Dunham likes this book, and that was my first reason to distrust it. On its face, this should be a wonderful book--cultural criticism by a Bengali second generation woman of the late twenty-something set (the early set is too raucous, I've heard, the mid-20s set too moderate, the late perfectly mellowed and matured). But alas, Lena Dunham. It is striking that no essay in this book really manages to convey a general point--instead, each sentence is a grand pronouncement of its own, as if to say "Take it or leave it." Treat these pronouncements with skepticism. Take a few of them, but leave the rest.
August 15, 2018
Definitely a book for the girls who want to be like "it girls" - cool but not trying. Modern, a bit dreamy, maybe a bit privileged and very very self-centred. She can write but I would be more interested in what she has to say if she has been kicked around by life a bit more. I did underline, there are some sentences and metaphors that were truly original and fresh. But it felt somehow raw. If you do plan to read it don't be intimidated by the first essay - I read half of it and then skipped it and moved on. Unless you like a mega load of stream of consciousness with heavy name-dropping.
January 16, 2021
Maybe the worst book I've ever read - boring, rambling and pretentious...put me into the biggest reading slump too which wasn't a good start to the year!
1* (would rate 0* if it was an option!)
1* (would rate 0* if it was an option!)
May 28, 2017
Among the best personal essays I've ever read. I took photos of at least fifteen pages to send to friends in the first chapter before realizing I'd just have to buy them copies instead.
September 19, 2024
i have a maybe-kind-of silly reluctance about rereading my favorite books. what if the magic of, and my warm feelings towards, a beloved book have dimmed since the first time i turned its last page? that’s a fate i wouldn’t want any of my favorite reads to meet, but especially not this essay collection.
i’m happy to report that too much and not the mood is just as beautiful and relatable and comforting as i remembered.
there’s a reason why i underlined entire pages of this book when i first read it last spring. it blows my mind that i was able to find even more things that resonated with me this time around that my pencil had missed last year. this is a book that i could return to year after year and continuously find new things to love about it, because it’s about, well… everything.
big things, like family and heritage and identity. small things, too: the way a friend laughs, how sunlight shines through the trees, the feeling you get from finishing a great book (which i had with this book, twice now. lucky me!). durga chew-bose is so observant, describing in glorious detail all the glimmering moments - blink and you’ll miss them - that make up a life. the traits we inherit from the generations that came before us. the fear of not connecting with the people we care about. the ways we change and stay the same, constantly in a state of becoming.
“Growing up, for a long period that's not worth mentioning here, I thought the expression was "Play it by year." As in, take your time. A whole year. More. Whatever you need. There's no rush.”
this book would be in my heart museum. cannot recommend it highly enough.
i’m happy to report that too much and not the mood is just as beautiful and relatable and comforting as i remembered.
there’s a reason why i underlined entire pages of this book when i first read it last spring. it blows my mind that i was able to find even more things that resonated with me this time around that my pencil had missed last year. this is a book that i could return to year after year and continuously find new things to love about it, because it’s about, well… everything.
big things, like family and heritage and identity. small things, too: the way a friend laughs, how sunlight shines through the trees, the feeling you get from finishing a great book (which i had with this book, twice now. lucky me!). durga chew-bose is so observant, describing in glorious detail all the glimmering moments - blink and you’ll miss them - that make up a life. the traits we inherit from the generations that came before us. the fear of not connecting with the people we care about. the ways we change and stay the same, constantly in a state of becoming.
“Growing up, for a long period that's not worth mentioning here, I thought the expression was "Play it by year." As in, take your time. A whole year. More. Whatever you need. There's no rush.”
this book would be in my heart museum. cannot recommend it highly enough.
July 22, 2020
Self-centred.
Contrived.
Boring.
Exactly what stream of consciousness should NOT be.
Not every feeling needs to be a metaphor, Durga.
For example -
What the hell?!?! 😾🙄
I don't think the author has had a very tough life, but she thinks that she has, and it shows.
Note to self : Don't trust books featured in too many Instagram photos.
Contrived.
Boring.
Exactly what stream of consciousness should NOT be.
Not every feeling needs to be a metaphor, Durga.
For example -
"Watching this woman mechanically tie her hair was softly enormous"
"There's an understanding that my grandfather would have liked me. Loved me, sure. But liking is altogether different. It's gentle. Almost chewy. Liking someone is taffy."
"[On growing up with sisters] Not learning how to join. You were already part of something. You could be a crowd. You could troop places. You could be recruited the way a pop song recruits you."
What the hell?!?! 😾🙄
I don't think the author has had a very tough life, but she thinks that she has, and it shows.
Note to self : Don't trust books featured in too many Instagram photos.
May 22, 2017
Personal essays, filled with digressions and tangents - the first (and longest) essay set me back on my heels a bit, but I eventually got into the rhythm of the language and let all the twists and turns was over me.
Want to read
October 12, 2025I watched a film directed by her I didn't like, but she's so cool that I'm going to read her book too.
March 24, 2019
I tried to like this book, and for the most part did. However, did I enjoy reading it? No, not particularly. Did I love it? Absolutely not. I was expecting (and that's my mistake) this book to be 'life changing,' or at the very least moving, but it was neither. At times, the content is very relatable and / or beautifully stated but for the most part it was scattered. For every sentence I thought 'STUNNING,' were 7+ I thought 'WHAT (and I can't stress this enough) THE FUCK IS HAPPENING?!?' I understand that this is a collection of essays written in a *stream of consciousness* but I felt like it was confusing and ineffective to cycle through ten different issues in one short essay (Heart Museum excluded) without any purpose in conclusion. Essays definitely touched on important and interesting issues but never really expanded on those issues and it all just kinda fell flat. Especially after reading 'Heart Museum,' with a hefty 93 pages. 93 pages. For one essay. 80 of which could've been cut into about three separate sections. There were multiple points when reading this book that I thought I should just dig up archived text posts from my Tumblr account circa 2012 and re-read those. It would've been basically the same experience all in all. Durga Chew-Bose definitely has a way with words 'Like sex with someone where your bodies conform, and your hands and legs fold into each other, even if it's been years. Even if there's been hate and pitiless hurt' (incredible!!!) BUT this is definitely a book you have to prepare yourself for prior to reading as it's exhausting at points the way it drags on, much like this review.
December 11, 2019
I can't even explain this writer's writing style. It's otherworldly.
Heart Museum makes me want to give this book 5 stars. It was the best piece of writing, almost stream of consciousness, kind of like ethereal, super in your head. I couldn't get enough of it. She makes the simple, extraordinary, and the extraordinary, out of this universe. Her passions, need for solitude, need for connection, her regrets, description of spaces, like a porch, sisterhood, her description of women and our ability to get lost in the things that we love, or reconnect with the things that we see, the people that we know - the way that she describes it all. It's the best writing I've ever read. Ever. I connected with this, whole body.
I'm sad that the rest of the book after Heart Museum didn't stay in the style of Heart Museum really, but damn. This was something for my soul. I read this and felt filled. It was unreal. I read this and felt understood. I understood every word of Heart Museum on a next level.
Durga said, "Writing is a closed pistachio shell." - listen, man. Listen. Shit is so heavy. POETIC as fuck, every line. Watching her grapple with writing her first-person narrative was madness in the best way.
In D As In, it felt like I was legit sitting inside her head. I get butterflies writing this review thinking about her words."To want and to write in the first person are two actions that demand of you you." The shit was inception. Her words took on a life inside of my head. Her, writing about talking about where she was from, protecting her energy, knowing that she doesn't have to give in to the whiteness that life wants to abuse you with, that we've become used to, and just deal with - when we don't have to. Yo. I can't.
Heart Museum makes me want to give this book 5 stars. It was the best piece of writing, almost stream of consciousness, kind of like ethereal, super in your head. I couldn't get enough of it. She makes the simple, extraordinary, and the extraordinary, out of this universe. Her passions, need for solitude, need for connection, her regrets, description of spaces, like a porch, sisterhood, her description of women and our ability to get lost in the things that we love, or reconnect with the things that we see, the people that we know - the way that she describes it all. It's the best writing I've ever read. Ever. I connected with this, whole body.
I'm sad that the rest of the book after Heart Museum didn't stay in the style of Heart Museum really, but damn. This was something for my soul. I read this and felt filled. It was unreal. I read this and felt understood. I understood every word of Heart Museum on a next level.
Durga said, "Writing is a closed pistachio shell." - listen, man. Listen. Shit is so heavy. POETIC as fuck, every line. Watching her grapple with writing her first-person narrative was madness in the best way.
In D As In, it felt like I was legit sitting inside her head. I get butterflies writing this review thinking about her words."To want and to write in the first person are two actions that demand of you you." The shit was inception. Her words took on a life inside of my head. Her, writing about talking about where she was from, protecting her energy, knowing that she doesn't have to give in to the whiteness that life wants to abuse you with, that we've become used to, and just deal with - when we don't have to. Yo. I can't.
January 3, 2020
It took me three years to finally read this book, and I'm glad I gave it time and actually finished it. While some essays were more polished than others, I couldn't stop thinking about Durga's writing. Perhaps because of the insane amount of talent and potential she has. I look foward to reading more from her.
June 30, 2017
Loved the first (longer) essay - really lovely writing and really interesting ideas and links. The other essays, while still really good, weren't as stand out. Am super interested in reading more by Durga and would recommend this to people.
January 8, 2018
Such a wonderful writer and a rare talent. I found a lot to love about these essays, but they didn’t quite connect with me emotionally the way other collections have done. More to come once I’ve considered my thoughts more carefully.
January 7, 2019
durga........ how do you know me so well
December 21, 2017
I tried to like this book. I picked it up, put it down, read some reviews and picked it back up again. The writing is excellent to be sure. I didn't find much substance here amidst all of the carefully wrought descriptions. To be honest, there were many places where I dropped my kindle, rolled my eyes and said "seriously?!" I'm thinking specifically of the ramble halfway through the first essay where the narrator associates everything with colors, and in all seriousness, photocopying with a kind of blue. Oh dear. Sentences meander from metaphor to metaphor. Most the essays were hard to follow, even if they were beautifully written. I'm not sure what the overarching theme was other than this project as a declaration of selfhood. The later essays are clearer but so overly self-involved it's hard to empathize. She goes on and on and on with self-absorbed commentary. Here's an example: the author writes dejectedly of herself that she always looks in photos as if she is mouthing the word tapioca. Why is she doing this? Why is she writing about this? I will never know.
Read
April 24, 2019this book spoke to my heart
April 27, 2017
I've followed Durga Chew-Bose's work (& instagram) for a while now, so before reading this I had a sense of what to expect. But whilst reading the first essay, there were multiple times where I reread a certain line or paragraph, shocked by how tenderly and specifically she was able to convey a certain feeling. The first essay - over 100 pages, I think, and seemingly all new writing - was beautiful. I think that essay alone is worth the rest of the book.
The rest of the essays were good, too. Some of them are republished/reworked ideas that I've read before, which I did actually enjoy, partly because it's nice to see how people rework their own writing and partly because her writing is just really good. It feels very intimate and personal without being self-indulgent, and it's very detail-orientated in a way that makes me want to pay attention more.
However, I would recommend reading an essay at a time; otherwise, it starts to grate a little. Chew-Bose has this very specific way of writing that I think starts to feel quite contrived if you swallow the book whole, but it works well with individual essays. She writes at one point 'I'm still doubtful my stories possess a clear point', and whilst I think each individual essay has its own 'clear point', there's not an explicit uniting theme of the essays. I think they're best appreciated individually or a few at a time.
The rest of the essays were good, too. Some of them are republished/reworked ideas that I've read before, which I did actually enjoy, partly because it's nice to see how people rework their own writing and partly because her writing is just really good. It feels very intimate and personal without being self-indulgent, and it's very detail-orientated in a way that makes me want to pay attention more.
However, I would recommend reading an essay at a time; otherwise, it starts to grate a little. Chew-Bose has this very specific way of writing that I think starts to feel quite contrived if you swallow the book whole, but it works well with individual essays. She writes at one point 'I'm still doubtful my stories possess a clear point', and whilst I think each individual essay has its own 'clear point', there's not an explicit uniting theme of the essays. I think they're best appreciated individually or a few at a time.
February 18, 2020
Durga Chew-Bose is hyper perceptive and writes about life through the intersection of intellectual prose and poetry. Through the lens of a first generation daughter of immigrants, every thing she encounters is an additional hypothesis to theorize on, each moment of experience provides context her nuanced, complicated and beautiful life. This book left me astounded and inspired, and reignited my passion for discovering meaning in every crevice this life has to offer.
April 26, 2017
I didn't know something so messy could be so devastatingly perfect and absurdly beautiful.
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