Kelsey’s Reviews > The White Album > Status Update

every person really is. Just when you think you know everything about her there's more. It was very personal and in total I really loved her writing.
5 stars

so fitting because it really was an amalgamation of so many different topics and discussions. I like how her writing shows how complex people are, every essay explores a minute yet impactful detail of her life or experience or interest, some of which would have no interest at all to the average person but they have meaning to her. I think it's just very illustrative of how complicated and interesting and different

understand the feeling of that constant danger of nature. The part about the orchids was really interesting to me too because I took a class in flowers my freshman year of college and there was actually a lot of discussion about orchid breeding. I think this was a really nice way to end the collection. I have said so much about each essay that I don't have any major closing remarks. I just think the title is truly

Quiet Days in Malibu- I love Malibu so much and this essay really exemplified it. Even as an LA native there's a feeling of community in Malibu when you enter any of the local establishments that you still feel an outsider in. It's like the Palisades in that way. The discussion of the fires and disasters is such an LA thing, in a way that I don't think that anyone from anywhere else in the country could possibly

On the Morning After the Sixties- About the massive change that came about from the 50s to the 70s, the vast gap between the time of football luncheon dates to her present day. How her generation was cynical from the beginning and thus accepted adulthood for what it was

This really is a monument to American engineering, a statement in stone of our accomplishments in the controlling of nature. Every time I start a new essay I am astounded by the breadth of her knowledge and interest

At the Dam- at the damn Hoover Dam. This fits in well with her earlier essay on water treatment. The carving of the date of the dam by stars in the concrete for when we are no longer here hit me just as hard as it did her as a classics student. That these engineers were so confident in their work that this damn would be standing past the life of our empire is a complicated thought that honestly makes a lot of sense

In Bogota- I've never been to South America but I'm sure I will one day go. This was an illustrative portrait of an unstable but deeply historied country. I wish that all American travelers today had the same feeling of needing to keep up our country's image and not come off as rude and arrogant or ignorant. This was beautiful and transformative

On the Mall- this is interesting to read as it was written on the forefront of the shopping mall, and I'm reading it in the time of death of the mall. The mall really did fill a third space role in society for quite a long time and while a beacon of unrestrained capitalism, truly did become a place to tune out the outside world and let yourself just wander and be consumed which I think she knew is sometimes necessary

usually matter a lot end up not mattering much at all. Although I could never live it in reality, I also completely understand the appeal of the corporate jetsetter, the constant meetings and rigidly scheduled time would certainly be a way to live. There is a strong appeal to it for sure, besides the fact that I would undoubtedly lose myself in the process