Thin Places: Essays from In Between

by Jordan Kisner

In this perceptive and provocative essay collection, an award-winning writer shares her personal and reportorial investigation into America's search for meaning

When Jordan Kisner was a child, she was saved by Jesus Christ at summer camp, much to the confusion of her nonreligious family. She was, she writes, "just naturally reverent," a fact that didn't change when she--much to her own confusion--lost her faith as a teenager. Not sure why her religious conviction had come or where it had gone, she did what anyone would do: "You go about the great American work of assigning yourself to other gods: yoga, talk radio, neoatheism, CrossFit, cleanses, football, the academy, the American Dream, Beyonce."

A curiosity about the subtle systems guiding contemporary life pervades Kisner's work. Her celebrated essay "Thin Places" (Best American Essays 2016), about an experimental neurosurgery developed to treat severe obsessive-compulsive disorder, asks how putting the neural touchpoint of the soul on a pacemaker may collide science and psychology with philosophical questions about illness, the limits of the self, and spiritual transformation. How should she understand the appearance of her own obsessive compulsive disorder at the very age she lost her faith?

Genres: Essays, Nonfiction, Memoir, Short Stories, Religion, Queer, Biography

272 pages, Hardcover

First published March 3, 2020

About the author

Jordan Kisner writes essays, features, and reviews for n+1, The Atlantic, The New York Times Magazine, The Guardian, The Believer, and others. Her first book, THIN PLACES, will be published on March 3, 2020, by Farrar Straus & Giroux.

Other hats: teacher of creative writing at Columbia University; creative team at Tables of Contents; mentor-editor for The Op-Ed Project; California transplant.

Reviews

[Meike · Rating 3 out of 5]

In her debut collection of essays, Jordan Kisner ponders identity and spirituality in modern-day America - reading this as a European, I can say that many of these texts capture those cultural aspects of the U.S. that seem particularly foreign to us, especially when it comes to religious attitudes and mores like debutante balls. All of the 13 essays somehow negotiate the relationship between inside and outside and the question whether these borders are permeable. Relating to that, the title-giving text states: "In thin places, the (Celtic) folklore goes, the barrier between the physical and the spiritual world wears thin and becomes porous. (...) Distinctions between you and not-you, real and unreal, worldly and otherworldly, fall way."

Kisner's essays combine reportage, memoir and factual reasoning. Often associative and re-constructing ways of thinking, the meandering texts tend to take their readers to unexpected places, drawing connections between the immigrant experience and coming out as queer, beach parties and church services, or mommy bloggers and activism against Trump. If you want to get an idea about Kisner's writing you can check out "Jesus Raves , which won a Pushcart Prize in 2016, or "Thin Places", which was selected for The Best American Essays 2016.

An interesting collection, but over the length of the book, Kisner didn't always hold my attention - I felt like some texts were lacking urgency.

[Bandit · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don’t read essays as a rule. I’m not sure why and going by how much I enjoyed this one, that rule really needs to change. But that’s just to say that this collection didn’t have an immediate attraction to me, outside of the fact that one of the essays was about OCD. That immediately interested me. But the thing is, it doesn’t matter how you come to the book sometimes, it only matters that you get there and I am so very glad I came to this book, because it was absolutely terrific. Thin Places are places in the world where the realities can bleed into each other, liminal and uncertain, complex, label defying layers that comprise so much of life. And Jordan Kisner makes for a superb guide to those places. She writes about faith, love, language in such a clever way, interspersing observational and personal perspectives. I suppose that’s the beauty of essay as a form, it allows for such infusions of personality, wherein journalism alone is valued for its detached objectivity. I’m not sure I appreciated that fact before now. But because essays are such personal beasts, the crux of their appeal hinges on the author and in this case, it works out perfectly. I’ve never read or heard of the author prior to grabbing this book off of Netgalley, so there were no expectations and had there been any, that would have still be blown right out of the water, because Kisner is just such a great writer, an absolutely awesome (yeah, awe inspiring) combination of stunning emotional intelligence, eruditeness and command of language. The best way I can describe this reading experience is…it was like having a conversation ( albeit format restricted one sided version thereof) with a smart well spoken person who told you the best, most interesting stories about all the things you found interesting. The range of these stories alone…from Mormon women uniting in their efforts to promote ethical (which is to say not the current one) government to Shakers to yes, that OCD one is notable. The way Kisner writes about things, putting them in historical and political context, drawing on facts and personal experiences…it’s so compelling. And she manages to give going on tangents a good name too, I absolutely loved the way the author veers off into a personal experience and then get right back to the main subject without skipping a single step, perfectly seamless connections between the author and their stories. And never not interesting, not for a moment. You can’t wait to see what she says next. It’s such a pleasure as a reader to be this engaged with, this excited by a book. Frankly, by a mind. Made me an instant fan. If all one sided conversations were this good, I’d pass on dialogue altogether. Loved this book and I can only hope it finds the wide readership it deserves. Recommended. Thanks Netgalley.

[Sharon · Rating 5 out of 5]

I started reading these essays on a plane and allllmoooost wanted the flight to last longer because Jordan Kisner's writing is just that good. Culturally relevant topics + stunningly beautiful prose + deep thoughtfulness = nonfiction catnip for me. There wasn't a single piece that dragged or felt out of place in the collection. Stellar!

[Never Without a Book · Rating 3 out of 5]

I could have gone without the first to essays, but out of 13, I really enjoyed 10 of them. Over all 3.5 out 5. More thoughts to come.

[Chamidae Ford · Rating 5 out of 5]

loved this is so much! putting this strange feeling i've never been able to describe in words! over and over! plus the writing is phenomenal and i loved every minute of it

[Tzipora · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

I have so many conflicting feelings about this essay collection. Kisner writes beautifully but she also is prone to longwindedness and trying to pack too many disparate subjects into a single essay. I found loved the earliest essays that were the most distinctly focused on religion and spirituality (albeit a very Christianized understanding of such and it is dishonest of the blurb to claim otherwise). In the middle I started to get absolutely frustrated and bored and annoyed. I set the book down for weeks and came back finally to finish it and enjoyed a few essays only to hit another of the long rambling ones and feel frustrated again.

One example of what frustrated me, in the last essay- Backward Miracle- she somehow talks about tattoos and queerness and stumbles off into a very long tale of the first tattooed white woman and then suddenly she’s back to queerness again, her own queerness, and by then I had honestly forgotten that that had been where the essay had begun. It’s maddeningly difficult to follow some of these because of the long asides and often because there are many (the middle essay BLANK was the absolute worst at this).

I had some caveats with the “spirituality” pieces as well, since Kisner was a religious studies major but appears to have never recognized the way Christian hegemony dominants her understanding. This isn’t necessarily a problem but that the publisher blurbed this as being about spirituality and Kisner herself makes some minor attempts to venture outside of Christianity- it fails. And this is true of many attempts in this country to be ecumenical but oof there is a small part about Judaism that absolutely baffled me and made no sense at all. I’ll spare the long and frustrated diatribe I wrote about this section as it’s such a small part of the book but if you mention Judaism in a way that makes no sense to a Jewish reader, well, I had to question how accurate other parts were. Especially for someone who majored in religion.

Perhaps that was another one of the issues with this collection. Kisner reaches too far at times and loses her point entirely or ends up out of her depth. These essays could’ve benefited from being tightened up and edited further. Pretty or talented writing aside, I’m not a fan of indulging in that if the point or thesis statement of the essay is lost entirely. I truly found it maddening at points to read.

I really struggle to know what else to say or how to rate this. I took copious notes and almost had to in order to keep up with what was going on at times. But I read and love essay collections and they should not require this much work. There are gems within both the collection as a whole and even within some of the longer messier pieces. I would say maybe that Kisner’s style is not for me but I’m often guilty of being similarly longwinded and lapsing into asides as well and this is just not something you maintain in a final draft. I shouldn’t be reading an essay and complete forget what the point was or that oh wait we are talking about the authors queerness but I forgot because we lapsed into page after page about a woman captured and tattooed by an indigenous tribe and rambled off into her history and motivations. I’m not completely dense. I know that the overarching essay was actually about tattoos but it went in so many directions I was frustrated. That’s not to say even that these asides themselves weren’t interesting, often they were, maybe even too much so which is how I lost track of what came before them. Unfortunately this happened again and again and is not a pleasant reading experience, in my opinion.

All that said, I would read Kisner again but I think I prefer her in smaller doses. This collection felt very all over the place at times and was simply too much.

[Serena Jampel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I can't remember if it was Akaash or Eilidh who recommended this to me but THANK YOU! This essay collection was amazing (and honestly way better than Jia Tolentino's Trick Mirror — gasp, I went there). Kisner has such a unique outlook and so many interesting stories! From hipster ministers to her mysterious tattoos to a strange colonial ceremony on the Texas-Mexico border, this essay collection was just plain fascinating. I also particularly appreciated how Kisner is not bound by a thesis or a particular style, her observations allow themselves to meander and become a little more freeform and verse-like, which I found really cool. Truly, a stellar essay collection! The one about death and morgues really got me thinking...

[Rennie · Rating 2 out of 5]

It took a lot of skimming for me to finish and it’s not a long book.

[Jaydin Burley · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a book that as soon as I finished, I wished I could reread it for the first time again. The collection of essays and stories are each so unique and interesting to one another while still holding an underlying narrative of connection. I absolutely adored this book.

[Reem · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. The writing is excellent and the sentiments are (dare I say) universal, but the personal anecdotes can be long-winded, which meant I often found myself digging for a message. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but for me it made the read more tedious than anything else, at times. Not great, but far from bad and the “thin places” concept is one I surely will carry with me.

[R.K. Cowles · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Goodreads giveaway. 4 1/2 stars. I haven't found many essay collection in the past 2-3 decades that is so refreshing. Most are monotonous. In a sense l have heard/read the same thing from countless others. Many of these essays gives a new insights of ideas of these situations/subjects.

[Leom · Rating 4 out of 5]

In case you read this - thanks for reviewing this brilliant book, Ella! :)

I love short story and essay collections- the more diverse the essays are, the better. This one had essays about religion, tattoos, sexuality, social stratification, cadavers and death— and I loved them all.

The entire book was beautifully written and the author approached each subject matter with so much care, thoughtfulness and deep curiosity. Highly recommend!

[Kathie Yang · Rating 3 out of 5]

some essays interested me more than others, definitely relevant and interests ideas! gave me something to chew on but lost its flavor in the second half

[Franny Hess · Rating 4 out of 5]

so much of life is lived in these in-between spaces... and yet we spend so much time trying to escape them... maybe we should try to linger just a little longer and see what its like to live there

[Lucy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant collection! Kisner is really inspiring me to start writing again.

[Adina]

This was my favorite essay collection I've read in a long time, and it made me want to write.

[Mina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fire recommendation from my pointe teacher 🫢🩰

[Maddy · Rating 3 out of 5]

really wanted to like this but ultimately it was fine and kinda boring? blah —the autopsy essay was good

[Luke Hillier · Rating 3 out of 5]

A collection of essays exploring many facets of liminality, from the titular concept of thin places to the Tex-Mexican borderlands, the transition from life to death and body to corpse, pansexuality, religious ambiguity, and biracial identity. Perhaps fittingly, these also straddle the line between memoir and journalistic writing, with Kisner interweaving (or, more often, juxtaposing) reflections from her personal life alongside the subjects and concepts she is examining. Unfortunately, I often found that element to read clunkier and less cohesive than ideal, leaving me with a sense of disparate threads that were not knotted together in a particularly satisfying or savvy way. And yet, when each distinct style of writing is considered on its own, there's a lot to appreciate.

I especially enjoyed the more distanced, journalistic considerations of hip Hillsong pastors leading a beachside "pop-up" church for the summer in "Jesus Raves," Mormon mothers who began organizing around social justice concerns in response to Trump's presidency in "Stitching," and the patriotic debutante society in the borderland town of Laredo, Texas in "Habitus." The latter in particular highlights both Kisner's adept skill and my frustration with her proclivities towards "more is more." She even includes a meta-comment about how difficult this essay was to write, followed by the epiphany that it needed a more intimate consideration of her own lineage and mother-daughter relationship streaming through it. But in my reading, those details seemed to mostly muddy the otherwise carefully crafted and communicated insights Kisner offers on the peculiarities of the society and the town it has emerged from. In other essays, however, like the opening "Attunement" or the finisher "Backward Miracles," it's undeniably the more personal, memorist-style writing that shines, as Kisner discusses her tenuous relationship with Christianity, her chase after the "flares" of happiness, and the loving relationship she's settled into with herself and her partner –– and they feel a bit bogged down by the historical info that feels tangential but is given a persisting spotlight treatment.

While I have my critiques from a more editorial end, I found a lot to appreciate here. In fact, I'd describe "The Other City," as a perfect essay. It relays Kisner's stint shadowing the employees of a medical examiners office in Cleveland, Ohio, detailing observations from autopsies, staff meetings, and conversations with the people whose day job involves the gory, gruesome onslaught of death. Although abundantly rich with insights from a diverse number of perspectives, they all still felt immediately traceable to the essay's core, resulting in a brilliantly focused piece that stood out among the others. As someone pursuing a vocation in chaplaincy, I also felt a lot of resonance with the frank discussions of death and the unique gifts and challenges of careers that force us to recognize it's constant (and constantly denied) presence. There is also some gorgeous writing throughout the essay that I really appreciated and see myself returning to. I also adored "Soon This Space Will Be Too Small," one of the shortest essays in the book and yet one of the most moving –– I actually think it would have made a perfect conclusion. It offers a gorgeous articulation of the themes that unite these stories of liminality, thresholds, and thin places. I'll close with a quote from it that I was especially fond of:

"Nearby, there is some other way of being we can not yet imagine. And that other world is near, is with us, our whole lives long, sometimes faintly audible, as if something is happening just on the other side of a very, very thin wall. We can forget about it for a long time, and then it comes again."

[Morgan Parker · Rating 4 out of 5]

I learned so much reading this.

My favorite essays were "Thin Places" and "The Other City." In the former, Kisner describes the liminal space between mental illness and wellness: "Eventually I could no longer avoid the fact that mental illness is not like infection; there's no outside invader. And if a disease is produced in your body, in your mind, the what is it if not you" (40). I disagree with some of what Kisner writes (structural violence, systemic racism, intergenerational trauma could potentially be considered "outside invaders" or outer forces that influence one's mental health), but I found this essay incredibly thought-provoking.

I laughed when Cleveland was featured in the essay on unexplained death, but it honestly turned out to be my favorite essay. Found it sooo interesting how death influences public health/the living: "The dead tell us how we're dying, how we're living, who among us gets a better shot than others at a whole and healthy life, and how wee remain vulnerable to one another and to the vicissitudes of an unpredictable world. Our epidemics, the commonality of our despair, our continual mistakes, the progress we have yet to make, the wrongs we have yet to correct--all these are mirrored back to us by the dead" (214). This poignant essay has made me increasingly curious about death/dying and appreciative of those working with the dead.

[Ella Pang · Rating 4 out of 5]

im so happy i stumbled upon this book at big bad wolf bc what a brilliant collection of essays on the most intriguing topics surrounding the binaries of contemporary life. my favourites were the one on our perceived relationship with (physical) spaces, young Christians proselytising in nightclubs, medical examiners and morticians on their work between life and death, and her personal relationship with tattoos and sexuality 🥹🥹

the author puts such poetic meaning to her themes and its books like this that make me realise there are so much more to learn and be curious about in the world!

this might be my new favourite nonfic genre!!! i kept thinking that this was fiction short stories and it just shows how good of a job she did infusing her own ideas and experiences on top of drawing from historical and political contexts. great book to end 2024 with! 🤝

[Ryan Jantz · Rating 5 out of 5]

This essay collection surprised me in a lot of ways. The writing is light as air and yet there is an undercurrent of some deep and cosmic wisdom at play here. Kisner goes to some magical (thin) places with a curiosity and openheartedness that I can’t imagine is easy to pull off without veering into the saccharine. But Thin Places doesn’t, all of its emotional revelations are deserved. My favorite essay was The Other City. Highly recommend.

[Julie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I enjoyed most the essays that talked about religion and her experiences with and without God in her life but I came into this book expecting the other essays to be equally if not better than the excerpt from her n+1 essay, “Thin Places”. If you’re expecting that the rest of the book is going to read like that essay, you’re going to be a bit disappointed. I found the topics in this book to be interesting but Jordan’s writing was not compelling enough to hold my attention.

[Disco Reimann · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 / 5

These essays are a reflection on, as the title says, the in between, and how, especially in American culture, there is such an intense demand for a binary, an erasure of the in between. She talks from her own identity and experiences, ranging from religious belief, sexuality, race and a career in writing. The moments I felt were the weakest tended to be when she would set up the premise for the ethnographical scene and then it would end almost abruptly, leaving me curious what else she thought, what else happened, me asking for more from what were very explorations of places and people I find demand more attention (religious cults, southern beauty pageants).

The moments I felt were the strongest:
-her essay on writing as a form of tattoo art;
-her use of Angels in America to talk about Mormon culture and the power of the Mormon who ("if she chooses to leave her path" it is "she [who] knows more than you ever will about how to make a new world"
-starting a really incredible (and new to me) conversation around certainty and how living in binaries makes the pursuit of certainty so intense. Asking the reader: how can we search for, find, and then sit with certainty, knowing—with a sense of certainty—how uncertain it ultimately really is? If our (queer/liberated/whatever) politic is that nothing is fixed, how can we stop pursuing certainty as part of our politic?

xoxo to Ash Sanders for the rec

"Life is marked by these rapid and unanticipated moments of reversal. You believe in God, and then you do not, or vice versa; you feel safe until you do not; you are well until you are not; you are humming along vaguely bored by your life and then you’re in love and everything, even you, looks different.”

[Renee Seinfeld · Rating 4 out of 5]

An enjoyable and enlightening book of essays by Jordan Kisner covering a wide array of topics. Some of the essays included interviewing tan, j-crew wearing, Cadillac Escalade driving, hipster evangelicals from Montauk; attending the yearly Martha Washington Pageant and Ball in Laredo, Texas, (a town that is 95% hispanic); a type of brain surgery for people who struggle with extreme OCD, and an essay regarding the massive shortage of coroners and forensic pathologists in the United States.

One of my favorite essays was about MWEG (Mormon Women for Ethical Government) a social action organization that began as a result of Trump winning the 2016 election. Appalled that Trump won, a small group of Mormon women in Utah gathered together and have grown to an organization of over 5,000 providing non-partisan accountability in government. I can't help but wonder if these women were the force that influenced Congressman Chaffetz's resignation and perhaps Senator Orin Hatch's retirement. I also wonder if these Mormon women influenced Mitt Romney's decision to vote in favor of Trump's impeachment.

I absolutely loved the randomness of the essays and Kisner's ability to step effortlessly into all of these subcultures in such a respectful and non-judgmental manner.

Ms. Kisner also weaves herself into all of the essays and we follow her personal journey to become the woman she is now.

A wonderful read.

[Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

"A thin place is where one can walk in two worlds – the worlds are fused together, knitted loosely where the differences can be discerned or tightly where the two worlds become one."~Internet Quote
•
I really enjoyed these essays, Kisner has a way with words that makes you sit up and pay attention.

In Thin Places she explores modern American spirituality, culture and personal identity. Through these 13 essays she shares some of her own intimate experience as well as insightful reportage on contemporary American society. From debutant balls, to OCD, to foresnic pathologists, to club hopping young Christian's, and more. This is a complex collection I feel like any description I give wont do it justice. It was a facinating read to say the least!

This collection never once comes across as preachy, but rather open minded, journalistic, inquisitive and personal. Kisner's writing is excellent, lyrical prose that keep you wanting more. So looking forward to whatever she does next!
•
Thank You to the tagged publisher for sending me this arc opinions are my own.
•
For more of my book content check out instagram.com/bookalong

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hit on so much that I have been turning over in my mind or running into in conversations.
Some essays were better than others (inevitable), enjoyed how Kisner structured her best ones.
Particularly Habitus, The Other City, and of course the last essay, Backward Miracle…

4.5 stars!

“It matters what stories you tell yourself about yourself, and in what language”

“They know intimately that understanding the world as being guided by a coherent and meaningful narrative isn’t possible”

“You are humming along vaguely bored by your life and then you’re in love and everything, even you, looks different”

“I was still getting used to having grown such a different body from my mother’s”

“In ways I don’t like to contemplate, my life as an excellently educated, widely traveled, white-passing American woman was the dream behind that erasure”

“I was becoming a different kin of woman than she is, and though I’ve never asked her about it, I think she could sense it from the cut of my shirts”

And the last line of course:
“It was the beginning of a wobbly and joyful and occasionally gross carrying on, learning to come home to you, marked and myself”

[Dave · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 stars: Right in between "it was okay," and "I liked it." I hoped for a more tangible thread connecting the essays, which felt to me like they were written for the author, not the reader, which is okay, I just didn't grow from her slices of self discovery. Her writing is at times moving and spectacular, and at times a collection of overly detailed non sequiturs. I don't think she wanted us to get "the point," and I think that is "the point," and on that point, she was on point.

Spoiler alert: In fairness, her target audience was definitely not a 57 year-old cis-gendered, straight, white male, with his shit more-or-less together, happily married with three beautiful children, a valuable, meaningful, productive career, a house in the suburbs, a strong faith, a mentor of youth, a Lutheran lay leader, an addictions volunteer in the corrections system, a sponsor of men in substance abuse recovery, an active LGBTQIA+ advocate, and a champion of social progressivism, but here we are.

[Tad · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I first heard about this book and its premise, I knew I needed to read it. I love the Celtic concept of thin places and even have a few places in my life that I have designated as thin places (Ghost Ranch in New Mexico is one of them for me). While not all of these fully connected for me or seemed connected to the central idea, I still enjoyed all of them. There are no bad essays in this collection. And some of them were actually quite insightful. I particularly enjoyed the one about the Washington Festival in Laredo, Texas. That essay really takes on the ideas of race, class and gender in some rather interesting and unique ways. I had hoped to love this book. I didn't but that's ok. It was still well worth the time I spent reading it. And I would still highly recommend it, particularly if you aren't familiar with the concept of thin places.

[Minnar Xie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kisner is a fresh voice. She explores ideas around the boundaries between self and something bigger, be it through the lens of a spiritual force, a racial or cultural identity, a mental illness, or simply a tightly wound story of who you are and who you aren’t. What I appreciated about it was that she didn’t fall into easy tropes of “not this or that” but illustrates where the inbetween spaces are legitimately their own space outright, or where the boundaries are closer to collisions or interweavings. It was exactly what I needed right now.

From a reader’s perspective of it as a whole collection, I didn’t like how some essays were long, meandering, and clearly packed a lot of research in and others were simply two pages and felt like a cutting on a bulletin board of inspo. Still, would very much recommend.