Pure Colour

November 1, 2021
Heti (How Should a Person Be?) delivers an underwhelming fable, a sort of Generation X Jonathan Livingston Seagull. Here, God has created three kinds of people: bird, fish, and bear. Birds are ambitious, fish are socially minded, and bears love with focus and intensity. Mira, the main character, is a bird, born to a bear father, with whom she has an emotionally incestuous relationship. Annie, a fellow student at the American Academy of American Critics whom Mira has a crush on, is a fish. Heti romanticizes the characters’ time in school, which apparently took place shortly before the advent of smartphones: “They just didn’t consider the fact that one day they would be walking around with phones in the future, out of which people who had far more charisma than they did would let flow an endless stream of images and words.” Mira is prone to overblown mysticism; after her father dies, she imagines she “felt his spirit ejaculate into her, like it was the entire universe coming into her body.” Stricken by grief, she hopes for relief from Annie, though their contrasting animal natures complicate the relationship. Just what the point of it all is remains something of a mystery. Even Heti’s fans will be flummoxed. Agent: Jim Rutman, Sterling Lord Literistic.

September 1, 2022

Heti's (Motherhood) latest book is part personal conversation and part philosophical treatise, examining emotions from joy to melancholy. The grief experienced at the loss of a beloved parent and how that loss affects other relationships is explored through main character Mira. The experimental nature of this work includes Mira finding herself in a leaf that is also hosting the spirit of her dead father and the metaphysical conversation that takes place between them. Beautiful writing with a lyrical quality makes this an easy listen, but it's also easy to lose track. Heti is not the strongest narrator, but her presentation sweeps you along even if you aren't quite understanding what is happening. The plot isn't the point, and the revelations are found in smaller bits, as in the way a few sentences are strung together and what they say about life. The writing is philosophical, metaphorical, and biblical. It invites you to think, but the audio doesn't give you the break needed to let your mind wander. VERDICT An optional purchase for libraries that own this in print.--Christa Van Herreweghe

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