#kenyanbibliophile

[favestranger]

I was having a dreamy conversation with an old friend once. I told them that one day they’ll find repose. ( Sad-ish dreamy) And in as much as there might remain remnants of overgrown sadness, there will be a smile, albeit tired, but a smile with honesty they’d never before known. ⠀ ⠀ That phrase - remnants of overgrown sadness - stuck with me. As did Jhumpa, and her debut book, Pulitzer Prize winner - 2000 Interpreter of Maladies. ⠀ ⠀ She fills in silences you’ve always felt but have never known what to do with them. The voids that life’s happenings leave on you. Some small, others gaping. Some loud, others creep on you so stealthily you barely notice but with a presence so loud. A failing father projecting his fears to his children. The thin line between pain and guilt. A once happy family crumbling slowly into misery’s pits. Silent dinners, with the cutlery clinks doing the most talking. The ache of having to put up social media fronts when your insides are guttered down and all you want to do is tear yourself up. The contradictions and complexities of our daily lives. ⠀ ⠀ Jhumpa finds the language for it all, and weaves it into short, lyrical sentences that will break your heart. But it will hurt so good. So so good. And you’ll want her to do it again. And again. ⠀ ⠀ So obviously your next read will be the novel she wrote after that, The Namesake. ⠀ ⠀ *⠀ I listened to a couple of interviews on YouTube that she’s done and she describes the book as being about the immigrant experience, the giving and taking between generations and the feeling of being displaced. Which reminded me of my own living experience of being a tad distant from my roots, the complexities of belonging to different cities, or none at all, even. Of not belonging. Which is something I want to explore further. ⠀ *⠀ Also, fun fact! Got my copy from the inama bookstore outside Tuskys Beba Beba for only 100bob (1$) and it originally belonged to Emily Peña. Well, thanks Emily! And wouldn’t it be so great if Emily learnt of the whereabouts of her books new home? #writerscommunity #bibliophile #kenyanbibliophile #interpreterofmaladies #jhumpalahiri https://www.instagram.com/p/BsBc-AqA2L-/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1u8ypxwsvkdlx

[favestranger]

The more you love someone, he came to think, the harder it is to tell them. It surprised him that strangers didn't stop each other on the street to say I love you. • I am always sad, I think. Perhaps this signifies that I am not sad at all, because sadness is something lower than your normal disposition, and I am always the same thing. Perhaps I am the only person in the world, then, who never becomes sad. Perhaps I am lucky. • This is love, she thought, isn't it? When you notice someone's absence and hate that absence more than anything? More, even, than you love his presence. • . I am not sad. I am not sad. Because his life had unlimited potential for happiness, insofar as it was an empty white room. He would fall asleep with his heart at the foot of his bed, like some domesticated animal that was no part of him at all. And each morning he would wake with it again in the cupboard of his rib cage, having become a little heavier, a little weaker, but still pumping. And by the midafternoon he was again overcome with the desire to be somewhere else, someone else, someone else somewhere else. I am not sad. • Jonathan Safran will terribly mess with your emotions and make you feel things you didn't even know you could feel. • #kenyanbibliophile #bookishfeatures #bookstagramfeature #bookstagrammers #bookstagrammersunite #bibliophile #jonathansafran #currentlyreading (at Java House)