A Look at June Through Literature
With this newsletter up and running, I thought I would take some time each month to share literature that I’m drawn to – whether inspired by personal events or relevant to what’s happening in the world.
Below are a few written works that I think anyone caught up in the whirlwind month that June has been will enjoy.
Zetta Elliott‘s homage to We Real Cool, titled We Can't Breathe. Illustration by Loveis Wise.
Given the more recent focus on the Me-Too Movement in the news, I’ve been thinking about this somewhat forgotten 1970 Joan Didion novel.
I’ve been thinking about this book in regard to racism, prejudice and bigotry in the news. All societies contain traps that are intended to weed out threats to the social order. In the 19th century, the great fear was birth outside of marriage or illegitimacy. The mechanism of this trap was unique, but the results were the same: suffering caused by prejudice for an arbitrary reason.
We don't know why, but summer has always been a challenging season for those who suffer from mental illness – a thing alienists began remarking on as early as the 18th century. With COVID-19 happening on top of that, I wanted to mention this 60’s book by Joanne Greenberg, which was later made into a very good 70’s movie starring Kathleen Quinlan.
For any new readers: My new novel, Tania the Revolutionary, is available on Amazon for Kindle and paperback or Barnes & Noble for eBook.