Double Charco Press, Norwegian Lit & The Death of Vivek Oji

Welcome to another weekly reading diary! I’ve read some really thought-provoking reads this week, including two titles from Charco Press and the brilliant The Death of Vivek Oji! I hope you enjoy reading about this week’s reading progress.

Disclosure: titles with an asterisk* were gifted by the publisher in exchange for an honest review. I’m an affiliate for Blackwell’s, so this post contains affiliate links to their site. If you buy a book via my links, I’ll earn a small commission at no extra cost to you – thank you!

FRIDAY 4 SEPTEMBER

At around 3pm (usually the time I’ve mentally clocked out of doing any work on a Friday), tree murderers arrive to chop down the trees outside my window. As well as being sad about the trees, I’m now also annoyed I can’t read because chainsaws are loud. Luckily, audiobooks to the rescue! I listen to around an hour and a half of A Black Women’s History of America and work on a cross stitch.

I’m more used to the textbook tone now. I’m learning a lot about the way Black women have continuously fought for their freedom in America. I learn about a woman who washed laundry and cooked for Confederate soldiers during the Civil War. She overheard military tactics and secrets and devised a way to relay these secrets to her husband via the way she hung washing on the line to dry!

Once the tree-cutters leave, I pick Ogadinma back up, around 6.30pm. The blurb was right, it’s really impossible not to root for Ogadinma. It’s also heart-breaking, as it seems everything bad that could possibly happen to her, does. Olisakwe strikes a good balance with her character though. She isn’t infallibly strong, brushing off every piece of misfortune and trauma as if it were nothing. She allows her to feel hurt and disillusioned and betrayed, but she has a drive to make a better life for herself.

SATURDAY 5 SEPTEMBER

Even though I have time to do chores during the week, and I do, there’s still something satisfying to me about cleaning on a Saturday morning. Just me? So I plug in my audiobook and get to it for about an hour. Then I sit down to do some more cross stitch and continue listening. A Black Women’s History of the United States would make such a valuable addition to any curriculum, especially in America of course. It is already quite in depth, but it would provide an impetus to go off and learn everything there is to learn about these women.

Then I decide on another Charco Press book for my Saturday read. I LOVE Charco Press in case that wasn’t already obvious. They’re so generous and always keep my shelves full of the best in contemporary Latin American lit. One of the last ones they kindly gifted me was Holiday Heart by Margarita García Robayo, translated by Charlotte Coombe. This story focuses on the disintegrating marriage between two Colombians living in the US. If you like unlikeable characters, and I do, then you’ll probably enjoy this. This husband and wife are truly… not great. If you’re sensitive to adultery then take care here.

But there’s also more going on under the surface than just a failing marriage. Robayo tackles racism within Latinx communities, the expectations versus realities of the ‘American dream’, and class prejudices. However, it’s only 160 pages and I think it might have been more effective if Robayo had taken a few more pages to delve into these issues more fully.

SUNDAY 6 SEPTEMBER

In the morning I work on my cross stitch and listen to the last couple of hours of my audiobook. I love this cross stitch, if I do say so myself! By the time I finish A Black Women’s History of the United States, it’s time for lunch. Then an Instagram catch up. Then a nap. And then for some reason I decide to watch a movie rather than read, so not a great deal read today!

I do manage about 50 pages of Girls Against God* by Jenny Hval, translated by Marjam Idriss, throughout the day.  Earlier in the year I read Paradise Rot by the same author and I really liked it, so I was curious about her latest book. So far it’s very angsty, something my inner teenage emo can appreciate. However, Hval also has a lot of things to say about the South of Norway and its conservative Christian attitudes. That combined with the black metal aspect of it (Hval is also a music artist) makes for an interesting read.

I’m doing a live show with Nadia of The StoryGraph at 8.30pm so I feel a bit nervous and antsy! I decide to start a new audiobook and cross stitch some more as that will help me settle more than trying to focus on a physical book. As it’s #ScienceSeptember hosted by @end.notes, I start listening to Wisdom from a Humble Jellyfish by Rani Shah. It’s only 2 hours long, but unfortunately doesn’t work for me. I expected more science and animal facts and less self-care and self-help thinly veiled as science. I wanted to learn more about the habits of animals rather than be told to write down three things I’m grateful for. That being said, it might make a cute gift for someone going through changes in their life. The physical book is illustrated, which might make it more charming and less… grating.

MONDAY 7 SEPTEMBER

I’m walking Mia solo this morning and I listen to the last 20 minutes of Wisdom from a Humble Jellyfish because… Well, I’m not really sure. If it were longer, I probably wouldn’t have, but for completion’s sake I just finish it.

Mondays are always my busiest days so I don’t pick up Girls Against God* until 6.30pm. Honestly, I was loving this book initially. But as I get over halfway, it starts to lose me. I’m not someone who needs a linear plot or structure to enjoy a book, but this is even a bit much for me. Rather than a book, it’s more like a series of surreal, avant-garde film clips. I know Hval is also a musician and so does a lot of performances, and it shows. This would work much better as a horror film. Sadly that means I wouldn’t watch it – I could never watch half of the things I read, I’m too squeamish when things get visual!

I would recommend this one to horror film afficionados and of course, metal fans. I do really appreciate Marjam Idriss’ translation too, especially the passages which delve into Norwegian linguistics. Those are fascinating! But for me, Paradise Rot is the superior novel here. (And if you were a fan of the excess of bodily secretions in Paradise Rot, you won’t be disappointed with Girls Against God.)

I also listen to the first few chapters of A History of My Brief Body by Billy-Ray Belcourt, via the Libro.fm ALC programme. He is a Driftpile Cree Nation poet, scholar and author. I can already tell he’s a brilliant poet from his prose.

TUESDAY 8 SEPTEMBER

After not really loving Wisdom from a Humble Jellyfish or Girls Against God (although I’d still recommend the latter to certain people), I choose something I basically 100% know I’ll love. That book is The Death of Vivek Oji by Akwaeke Emezi. I loved Pet back in June, and I’ve only seen great reviews for Vivek Oji, so my hopes are high. I don’t think Emezi will disappoint – and I’m not wrong.

Even though my eyes are really sore in the evening (I went to the beach in the afternoon, I don’t know why but that always makes my eyes tired), I devour 100 pages. Emezi’s prose was brilliant in a young adult book, so I knew their prose in an adult novel would be next level. Vivek, a young man whose death sets off the beginning of the novel, and his world utterly absorbs me. But although he’s dead from the start, this book is really about Vivek’s life, friends, family, community and identity. I can’t wait to read more tomorrow!

I also listen to a couple of essays from A History of My Brief Body by Billy-Ray Belcourt. Part of me thinks I should be reading this in print. It might be easier to follow his thoughts that way, which are so profound that just listening doesn’t feel quite enough. I have to keep pausing to note something down or mark a time stamp. I’ll leave you with this quote:

‘To love someone is firstly to confess: “I’m prepared to be devastated by you”.’

WEDNESDAY 9 SEPTEMBER

All day I just think about sitting down with The Death of Vivek Oji in the evening. It’s safe to say I’m obsessed with this book and Emezi’s gorgeous and heart-breaking exploration of gender identity, grief and love. I do find it quite unusual that some parts are narrated in the third person, from no particular character’s POV, while other short sections are narrated by Vivek or Osita. But both work well. I love reading from Osita and Vivek’s perspectives especially, as they feel so raw. I finish it around 8pm and I admit, I do shed a tear. This might be my favourite of the month already!

I listen to two more essays from A History of My Brief Body, in both of which Belcourt discusses growing up gay. He talks about decolonial love, which reminds me of Matt Ortile’s memoir-in-essays The Groom Will Keep His Name. Belcourt lays out the difficulties of dating as an Indigenous gay man, as white men are quick to objectify or tokenise him – or claim they don’t see colour while dating at all. There’s also a particularly frustrating recollection of the awful treatment Belcourt receives at a hospital while trying to obtain information about post-exposure prophylaxis.

Before bed I start A Musical Offering* by Luis Sagasti, translated by Fionn Petch, another Charco Press title. I’m a bit hesitant about this one because on the one hand I adore Charco Press but on the other I’m completely useless when it comes to music. However, I’m quite taken with this mash-up of Scheherazade, Glenn Gould and Bach – it sounds weird but it works!

THURSDAY 10 SEPTEMBER

This constitutes the most useless entry of my reading journals so far as I read exactly 10 pages today. Life completely got in the way and when I did sit down with free time for longer than 10 minutes, my eyes just wanted to close! But I’m looking forward to spending more time with A Musical Offering* tomorrow. It’s such an intriguing mix of musical non-fiction, classic stories and a little something of Sagasti’s own.

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