Ordinary Notes

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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

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]

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References

Citations

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.