This was supposed to go out yesterday! But I completely forgot. Never mind, it's still Book of October. We'll get another Book of the Month in November: and this is a promise. Okay, welcome, folks, to Book of the Month. It's actually so crazy the year is about to end or maybe not because people, it has been a long year. I rarely get personal on here and I'm wishing I did because at least I could launch into how crazy this year has been. Yeah.
Anyway, the book of this month is Come and Get It by Kiley Reid, the same author who wrote the masterpiece, Such a Fun Age. To say that I loved that book would be an understatement so with that inherent trust for the author, I went into this one blindly, with no knowledge whatsoever what the book was about.
At about page 15 of this book, a Black girl (the daughter of a professor) overhead her a group of white girls refer to her as “ghetto.” And she found this so hilarious, so ridiculous. I chuckled and said out loud literally, “ah I’m going to like this book.” And like it I did.
Come and Get It told the story of a twenty-four year old Residential Assistant, a professor, and a three other college students at University of Arkansas. The professor, Agatha Paul, arrived on campus looking for her next big idea to write about. She was introduced to the RA, Millie Cousins, who throws her into the world of class, privilege, and the intricacies of social conduct. In between, Millie and Agatha discover unexpected, reckless things about themselves.
Kiley Reid is a brilliant “social observer” and that’s what makes this book soar. She stood on the sidelines while telling us intimate things about these people we likely would never know in real life. And she did so in the most objective manner. She revealed to us how power dynamics can creep up and take shape. How ambiguity so often disguises itself as clear and simple, but before you know it there is a tangled mess unfurling uncontrollably. Reid's writing was clear, descriptive, and showing us the contours of the human heart. I love when a writer reminds me of the art of writing itself. She showed us the tiniest bit of frown that carried more weight than was necessary; the blinks that cascaded into anxious panic and eventual tears. She explored friendship (old and new), conforming, oddities, and starting over. What a brilliant writer Kiley Reid is. Having never been to Arkansas, I can now hear the train screeching by just down the hills from the yellow house. I can almost smell the Belgrade dorm. And the best part was how she did this so effortlessly, and you know those are often the hardest. For all of this alone, even without the plot, this book is Book of the Month.
Through the course of this book, there was so much skirting around personal accountability. We see it in real life too. There is this desire, this desperation for "freedom;" freedom to do things because why not; to live life on your own terms. It's seductive, freeing, totally unfettered. Until it all comes crashing and you, the observer, are forced to ask, how could you be so stupid? Maybe it's my almost militant sense of justice but I wanted them (and you would know who when you read the book) to face more consequences for their moronic actions. How could you be so stupid? How?
The last paragraph already begins to hint at this but I didn't find any of the characters likable. They were reckless, stupid, mean, snobbish, and some were just altogether childish. Were Colette and Ryland just a caricature? The mean gay and the irritating [what the heck was Colette anyway]?? What was that all about? The exception was Kennedy. I found her to be the most innocent of all, ironically.
I’ve seen many describe this book as this sociological exploration of money, and as someone obsessed with personal finance, I did not get that. I also wasn’t sure if this was meant to be satire and it just went over my head? But I found nothing satirical about it. Somewhere along the line, it because a bit too quotidian (you know I love me some ordinariness) but I...just realized I was not that interested in the life of white college girls. I hate to say this, but at some point, I wondered, hmmmph okay and? I just did not care anymore. And yet, I almost want to say it was no fault of Reid. I think she tried hard to hold the reader's attention. But one can only try so much to make the those characters interesting people. They weren't. They couldn't be.
So much was unresolved in the end and depending on the reader, this may or may not be the worst thing. I love a good ending so that annoyed me a bit. But frankly, I was also ready for it to be over so it wasn't the worst thing for me.
All that said, another book of the month! I've read so many great books this year. Whew what a gift. One or two more book posts before the end of the year would be a bulk one.
Alright, that's all folks.
I wish you joy in November. Lots and lots of it.
Love,
I
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