Ordinary Notes Explained

Ordinary Notes
Author:Christina Sharpe
Country:United States
Language:English
Publisher:Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Release Date:April 25, 2023
Pages:392
Isbn:978-0374604486
Oclc:1376023460

Ordinary Notes is a book by American academic Christina Sharpe, published in April 2023 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux.[1] The book is a collection of 248 notes about black life in the United States.[2]

Ordinary Notes received positive reviews by writers for Kirkus Reviews, The New York Times, and others. It was shortlisted for the 2023 National Book Award for Nonfiction. Sharpe previously published In the Wake: On Blackness and Being in 2016.[3] [4]

Contents

Among its 248 notes are recollections of the presidency of Barack Obama, a discussion of Obama's response to the 2015 Charleston church shooting, an anecdote at the National Memorial for Peace and Justice, a discussion of Roland Barthes's book Camera Lucida, and an analysis of a character in Toni Morrison's Beloved.[1]

Reception

Ordinary Notes 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", while Jennifer Szalai, writing for The New York Times views her collection of notes "as a rejoinder" to popular conceptions to black life. A review by CBC Books labeled the book "a singular achievement" in writing about "the ordinary-extraordinary dimensions of Black life".[6]

Kirkus Reviews named Ordinary Notes one of the best non-fiction books of 2023.[7]

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Kati . Rebekah . Ordinary Notes . . 1 March 2023 . 26 April 2023.
  2. Web site: 2023-10-05 . National Book Award finalists announced . 2023-11-20 . Books+Publishing.
  3. News: Szalai . Jennifer . Jennifer Szalai . In 'Ordinary Notes', a radical reading of black life . . 19 April 2023 . 26 April 2023.
  4. Ordinary Notes . Kirkus Reviews . 19 January 2023 . 26 April 2023.
  5. Buck . Brendan . More than the sum of its parts: A review of Christina Sharpe's Ordinary Notes . . 24 April 2023 . 26 April 2023.
  6. Web site: Ordinary Notes by Christina Sharpe . . 6 April 2023 . 26 April 2023.
  7. Web site: Liebetrau . Eric . 2023-11-19 . Best of 2023: Our Favorite Nonfiction . 2023-11-21 . . en.