Ordinary Notes

Ordinary Notes is a book by Christina Sharpe, published in April 2023 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux.[1] The book is a collection of 248 notes about black life. It received positive reviews by writers for Kirkus Reviews, The New York Times, and others. Sharpe previously published In the Wake: On Blackness and Being in 2016,[2] and as of 2023, she is the chair of black studies at York University.[3]

Contents

Among its 248 notes are recollections of the presidency of Barack Obama; a discussion of Obama's response to the Charleston church shooting; an anecdote at the National Memorial for Peace and Justice; a discussion of Roland Barthes's Camera Lucida; and an analysis of a character in Toni Morrison's Beloved.[4]

Reception

The book received a positive review by Brendan Buck in Newcity, who praised Sharpe's writing as "not just personal or academic" but using an "inventive form" to discuss personal, academic, historical, and other facets of black identity.[5] Kirkus Reviews praised Sharpe's writing as "exquisitely original" and "artistry",[3] while Jennifer Szalai, writing for The New York Times views her collection of notes "as a rejoinder" to popular conceptions to black life.[2] A review by CBC Books labeled the book "a singular achievement" in writing about "the ordinary-extraordinary dimensions of Black life".[6]

References

Citations
  1. Kati 2023.
  2. Szalai 2023.
  3. Kirkus Reviews 2023.
  4. Kirkus Reviews 2023; Kati 2023; Szalai 2023.
  5. Buck 2023.
  6. CBC 2023.

Works cited
  • Buck, Brendan (24 April 2023). "More than the sum of its parts: A review of Christina Sharpe's Ordinary Notes". Newcity. Retrieved 26 April 2023.
  • Kati, Rebekah (1 March 2023). "Ordinary Notes". Library Journal. Retrieved 26 April 2023.
  • Szalai, Jennifer (19 April 2023). "In 'Ordinary Notes', a radical reading of black life". The New York Times. Retrieved 26 April 2023.
  • "Ordinary Notes by Christina Sharpe". CBC. 6 April 2023. Retrieved 26 April 2023.
  • "Ordinary Notes". Kirkus Reviews. 19 January 2023. Retrieved 26 April 2023.
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