Minor Feelings: an Asian American Reckoning, Cathy Park Hoang

 This is terrific. A collection of autobiographical essays, loosely gathered around the theme of Asian American womanhood. I'd been thinking about the specificities of Asian identity more after a fantastic panel on Critical Brownness Studies at the MLA earlier this year, and this book returned to some of the issues I had heard about there (especially the position of Asians within a US racial hierarchy organized around anti-Blackness), but it also went in some unexpected, and incredibly thought-provoking, directions. I'm especially thinking about the essay about Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, which starts with the observation that the volumes of writing about her rarely mention her rape and murder, and then goes on to explore how to write about that, as well as an excellent essay on Richard Pryor and stand-up comedy.*

  The more autobiographical essays — especially one about college friendships and becoming an artist — are also fantastic. I found myself reflecting on the difference between essay and auto-theory — these are definitely essays, and I'm still pondering what that means exactly. Certainly, they do not feel self-indulgent in the way that auto-theory often can, and I think that's partly because, although they go in all kinds of surprising directions, there is a consistent theme or idea that holds them together. I like the looseness and whimsy of auto-theory, sometimes, but there's a limit. This book, though, strikes the exact right balance of meta-reflection, a judicious use of the pause to stop and ponder the thing one has just said, or openly worry about whether to say something else. The book's wonderful dry humor is crucial as well — it doesn't appear, as you might expect, in those meta-moments, but at other, unexpected points that provide a helpful leavening in a book that also pulls off the admirable feat of having really compelling moments of intense anger.

Required reading!

* A persistent fascination of mine. If you know of some good writing on stand-up comedy, please, tell me about it.