Ross Gay

Poet Ross Gay follows up his mini-essays in [The Book of Delights] with set of 14 longer essays that contemplate joy - not unthinking happiness, but joy mixed with sorrow, joy as resistance, and joy as complicated as the world we live in. He names each of these essays an "incitement" of joy and approaches his various topics with the same sort of tangential and footnote-filled style he uses in his shorter essays and is sure to delight readers of his other work.

I really enjoyed diving into show more Gay's incitements. He writes like he might have a conversation, starting from one point and ending somewhere else, but somehow still coming back to his points about human connection, gardening, wonder of the world, and grief. His essay about his father's death was heartbreaking, yet there was also much happiness - joy, as full as it can be - to contemplate as well. His work is always thought-provoking, and makes me want to sit down and chat with him about life. show less

As he did in The Book of Delights, poet Ross Gay spends a year writing out everyday things that delight him. Eighty-one are included here, ranging widely in topic and tone, and including an appendix of "short" delights that didn't make a full essay and books that he mentions in the text or was reading while he wrote these.

Each essayette is only about 2-3 pages long, making it perfect to dip into at busy times. Even so, I could have finished it faster, but held myself back, wanting to savor show more the read and engage with Gay's thoughts. Despite the name, not every essay is happy and it's not at all twee. There's real life here, including grief and racism and the full gamut of human experiences. But, without that, can we really experience what we call delight anyways? Gay makes me want to do something similar myself, to ruminate on quotidian delights and enjoy them all the more. Highly recommended. show less

The subjects of Ross Gay's poetry reminds me of Billy Collins: it's the everyday joys and sorrows, that of working in the garden or walking down the street. But Gay has a rhythm and style all his own. Many of the poems have almost no punctuation, giving them a breathless quality. He breaks the fourth wall often, calling the reader "friend" and talking to you directly, or a tongue-in-cheek statement that poetry doesn't talk about what he's writing. My favorite was the title poem "Catalog of show more Unabashed Gratitude," surprising me with its deep emotion of both gratitude and pain, all that is life. show less

On his forty-second birthday, poet Ross Gay decided to write essayettes about things that delighted him. He made a few "rules" for himself: to write every day (or almost), and write it longhand, for one year. The result is this book.

As one might expect, such a book ranges far and wide through Gay's observations and stream of consciousness style of writing. In the midst of delight are also some serious observations about race, how time has become a commodity, and the challenges his parents show more had when they married, a Black man and a white woman. There are also moments of joy with friends, loving the quirkiness of living, and working in his garden. I enjoyed reading this so much that I reached that almost painful place of wanting to keep reading but also wanting to slow down, pause, and draw out the experience just a little longer. His style of writing meant that while I loved some sentences and observations on their own, it depended so much on the phrase or sentence before and after that I couldn't pick out just one sentence (or handful) to write or quote - I would've just rewritten the whole mini essay. They're each only a paragraph to a few pages long at the most, so it's easy to sit down and just read a few at a time, fitting it in during lunch breaks or reading just a bit before bed. It's inspired me to notice what delights me as well - not least of which is this book. show less