An exquisite venn diagram of everything I love in fiction, basically.
Little Blue Encyclopedia (for Vivian) by Hazel Jane Plante is a fictional memoir of a lesbian trans woman writing in order to process the death of her best friend Vivian. She decides to tackle this project by creating an encyclopedia of Vivian's favorite TV show: Little Blue. The narrator's result is part memoir, part biographical exploration of Vivian's life, and part cultural history of the Little Blue TV show. Plante's result is a fantastic and immersive novel, both delightfully quirky and truly emotional.
If you follow my reading either from booktube, bookstagram, or anywhere else (?), you might know one of my favorite genre is literary memoirs/essay collections/personal histories of objects/pop culture (yes, for some reason my mind groups all of these under the same umbrella genre). The obsession sprouted when I was exposed to Joan Didion's brilliance for the first time and has done nothing but grow ever since.
I also, since I first read Hanya Yanagihara's The People In the Trees, have become obsessed with fiction that disguises itself as (or tries to emulate) non-fiction. There is a lot to be analyzed as to whether this might be a fruitful endeavor (and there is an entry on the topic coming your way), but when I read mock review/memoir/history/essay collection which amounts to an overarching fictional narrative I'm in.
That is what Little Blue Encyclopedia (for Vivian) is. It is extremely well done. The narrative voice rings truer than some actual memoirs I've read. The characters are multidimensional and adorable. The show sounds bonkers but plausible (and I kind of want to watch it). I didn't want it to end and yet I couldn't stop reading.
I just can't recommend it enough.
(Let's be honest, I'll probably be talking about this for the rest of the year.)
No hay comentarios
Publicar un comentario