A review by extemporalli
Symptomatic by Danzy Senna

4.0

Danzy Senna is one of the most interesting writers in America today, and I'd highly recommend reading everything she's written (the fiction, yes, but the essays too are great). What was interesting about Symptomatic to me is the way she enlarges on certain themes present in her first novel, Caucasia, in a less hopeful, more cruel, and arguably more interesting, way. If the misanthropy was blink-and-you'll-miss-it asides in Caucasia, and settled fact in You Are Free, the short story collection following this, here's it's something to be explored at every twist, the feeling of discomfort building and building, and not just for reasons to do with the plot. And I'll be honest- the plot was the least interesting aspect of the book for me, I saw that twist coming a mile away, but it serves as a fairly sound backbone on which to hang the book on, and what Senna's REALLY interested in talking about: invisibility/passing, the fascination of similarity, inappropriate behaviour, and shit white people say to you when they don't know that you're black. Go read it.