On Community
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
Shortlisted for the 2024 Lambda Literary Award for Transgender Nonfiction • Finalist for the 2024 Leslie Feinberg Award for Trans and Gender-Variant Literature • One of CBC Books' Canadian Nonfiction to Read in the Fall • A Tyee Best Book of 2023 • A CBC Books Best Nonfiction Book of 2023 • A Hamilton Review of Books Best Book of 2023 • An Autostraddle Best Queer Book of 2023
We need community to live. But what does it look like? Why does it often feel like it's slipping away?
We are all hinged to some definition of a community, be it as simple as where we live, complex as the beliefs we share, or as intentional as those we call family. In an episodic personal essay, Casey Plett draws on a range of firsthand experiences to start a conversation about the larger implications of community as a word, an idea, and a symbol. With each thread a cumulative definition of community, and what it has come to mean to Plett, emerges.
Looking at phenomena from transgender literature, to Mennonite history, to hacker houses of Silicon Valley, and the rise of nationalism in North America, Plett delves into the thorny intractability of community's boons and faults. Deeply personal, authoritative in its illuminations, On Community is an essential contribution to the larger cultural discourse that asks how, and to what socio-political ends, we form bonds with one another.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
As a trans woman who grew up in a Mennonite family, writes science fiction, and splits her time between Ontario and New York City, Casey Plett understands that the word “community” can mean many different things—even to the same person. Plett explores all of those meanings in this thoughtful, relatable essay. We often think of our community as a sort of chosen extended family, and at its best, that’s true. But Plett also considers fractious communities like fandoms, where gatekeeping over who does and doesn’t belong can overshadow the fun of celebrating a shared interest, or how advertisers often use the word “community” when they really mean “customers.” At the essay’s most pointed, Plett examines the insidious ways that phrases like “the trans community” imply that all transgender people have the same beliefs. Thought-provoking on multiple levels, On Community is a fascinating and important read.
