Inciting Joy
Essays
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- €3.99
Publisher Description
'Punchy and compassionate' OBSERVER
A collection of gorgeously written and timely pieces in which prize-winning poet and author Ross Gay considers the joy we incite when we care for each other, especially during life's inevitable hardships.
In "We Kin" he thinks about the garden (especially around August, when the zucchini and tomatoes come on) as a laboratory of mutual aid; in "Share Your Bucket" he explores skate-boarding's reclamation of public space; he considers the costs of masculinity in "Grief Suite"; and in "Through My Tears I Saw," he recognizes what was healed in caring for his father as he was dying.
In an era when divisive voices take up so much air space, Inciting Joy offers a vital alternative: what might be possible if we turn our attention to what brings us together? Full of energy, curiosity, and compassion, it is essential reading from one of our most brilliant writers.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Poet Gay (The Book of Delights) examines in this stunning collection how joy deepens when accompanied by grief, fear, and loss. In "Joy and Losing Your Phone," he describes relying on the help of strangers; "Joy and Death" is a reflection on losing his father to cancer; "Joy and Time" covers the privilege of not being "on the clock"; and in "Joy and Laughter," he observes that "one of laughter's qualities is that it can draw us together." Gay gracefully turns from lighter pleasures (imagining a book about great album covers, for instance) to confronting cruelties, such as racist violence or the "brutal economy" of capitalism. "Grief Codex," the longest and most intricate essay, touches on football, toxic masculinity, couples therapy, and grief: "we might always be holding each other through our falling," Gay concludes, positing that "holding each other through the sorrow" is one definition of joy. Gay's curiosity is present on every page ("I am a fan of the digression," he writes) and his precise yet playful prose sparkles: a friend wears "a goldfinch of a grin," while a mall parking lot "away from the cast even of the aged streetlights" is a safe space. This resonant, vivid meditation shouldn't be missed.
