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A review by joyful24
Symptomatic by Danzy Senna
4.0
as tragic mulatto stories go this one is pretty darn good. i was lulled into the twenty-something angst of a young woman trying to find herself after college. the situation is familiar; but, it was very apparent that the main character had some extra growing pains to contend with in this quick read. her narrator was steady. you share each moment of her life syllable by syllable as she accounts for life during her journalism internship. seems like a simple premise. about as simple as the invisible man emerging from his cave full of light bulbs!
as i read this story i was impressed. i kept hearing amiri baraka/the roots "there is something in the way of things" play as your eyes flow across the page. displacement. that is the boding feeling you get as you journey down the rabbit hole...Clotel meets Single White Female. yes it is that intense. the delivery of the conclusion is a bit weak, but the set up is beautiful. fifty pages in you are told: "learn your lessons early and you'll save yourself a lot of bullshit down the line."
page ninety seven: i would never do anything to jeopardize your fellowship. page one thirty three the narrator ends the chapter with a memory: "i sat digesting by the window, staring out at the freeway in the distance. that stream of lights and the deserted city streetsdescribed the world for me now, and not here, this bright full space of laughter and friends. this is the strange effect of getting lost. you become aware not so muchof what is absent-all that is faimiliar and safe-but rather of what the familiarity has been keeping at bay: a world of strange shadows and cruel laughter, of odious companions just waiiting fo ryou to come out and play. and they know you will."
now all of this spaced out by some very odd things. there is talk of quadroons, porch monkeys, friendship, abandonment, family, failed relationships, being color struck and color fu ked. its all very brilliant. everything leads you to ride a train of thought (especially when then narrator rides the train and talks about her reflection like its another person) that terminates at the traindepot of crazy white bitches!
as i read this story i was impressed. i kept hearing amiri baraka/the roots "there is something in the way of things" play as your eyes flow across the page. displacement. that is the boding feeling you get as you journey down the rabbit hole...Clotel meets Single White Female. yes it is that intense. the delivery of the conclusion is a bit weak, but the set up is beautiful. fifty pages in you are told: "learn your lessons early and you'll save yourself a lot of bullshit down the line."
page ninety seven: i would never do anything to jeopardize your fellowship. page one thirty three the narrator ends the chapter with a memory: "i sat digesting by the window, staring out at the freeway in the distance. that stream of lights and the deserted city streetsdescribed the world for me now, and not here, this bright full space of laughter and friends. this is the strange effect of getting lost. you become aware not so muchof what is absent-all that is faimiliar and safe-but rather of what the familiarity has been keeping at bay: a world of strange shadows and cruel laughter, of odious companions just waiiting fo ryou to come out and play. and they know you will."
now all of this spaced out by some very odd things. there is talk of quadroons, porch monkeys, friendship, abandonment, family, failed relationships, being color struck and color fu ked. its all very brilliant. everything leads you to ride a train of thought (especially when then narrator rides the train and talks about her reflection like its another person) that terminates at the traindepot of crazy white bitches!