"The former children's buyer used to come to me from time to time with a book and say, 'This is a "Nathalie" book.' Liz doesn't work here anymore, but if she did then Too Much and Not the Mood would be the next book she brings me. Durga Chew-Bose and I are asking ourselves the same questions, though she is further along in the process of answering them. The energy of anticipation is in these pages. These essays conclude in a place that feels honest yet incomplete, perhaps necessarily so. In the first essay, 'Heart Museum,' she writes, '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.' Too Much and Not the Mood is one of those great books and I, finally, feel latched on."
Publisher FSG Originals
Publication Date 2017-04-11
Section New Titles - Paperback / Essays / All Staff Suggestions / Nonfiction Suggestions / Nathalie B.
Format Paperback
ISBN 9780374535957
From Durga Chew-Bose, “one of our most gifted, insightful essayists and critics” (Nylon), comes "a warmly considered meld of criticism and memoir" (New Yorker), a lyrical and piercingly insightful debut collection of essays about identity and culture. Too Much and Not the Mood is a beautiful and surprising exploration of what it means to be a first-generation, creative young woman working today. On April 11, 1931, Virginia Woolf ended her entry in A Writer’s Diary with the words “too much and not the mood” to describe her frustration with placating her readers, what she described as the “cramming in and the cutting out.” She wondered if she had anything at all that was truly worth saying. The attitude of that sentiment inspired Durga Chew-Bose to gather own writing in this lyrical collection of poetic essays that examine personhood and artistic growth. Drawing inspiration from a diverse group of incisive and inquiring female authors, Chew-Bose captures the inner restlessness that keeps her always on the brink of creative expression.
