Paperback, 460 pages

English language

Published March 26, 2020 by Jacaranda Books.

ISBN:
9781913090111

View on OpenLibrary

5 stars (2 reviews)

Lush and frothy, incisive and witty, Shola von Reinhold’s decadent queer literary debut immerses readers in the pursuit of aesthetics and beauty, while interrogating the removal and obscurement of Black figures from history.

Solitary Mathilda has long been enamored with the ‘Bright Young Things’ of the 20s, and throughout her life, her attempts at reinvention have mirrored their extravagance and artfulness. After discovering a photograph of the forgotten Black modernist poet Hermia Druitt, who ran in the same circles as the Bright Young Things that she adores, Mathilda becomes transfixed and resolves to learn as much as she can about the mysterious figure. Her search brings her to a peculiar artists’ residency in Dun, a small European town Hermia was known to have lived in during the 30s. The artists’ residency throws her deeper into a lattice of secrets and secret societies that takes hold of her aesthetic imagination, but …

2 editions

resistance through aesthetics

5 stars

It's about being black and queer, it's about aesthetics and adornment as a kind of spirituality, it's about escape and creation/reinvention of oneself, it's about reclaiming history, it's weird and hard to describe.

Felt nearly perfect. The only thing I can find to fault is not having nearly enough descriptions of Mathilda's outfits. Mathilda must have a fabulous fashion sense and there's a part of me with a burning need to know what she is wearing at all times.

avatar for mouse@bookwyrm.social

rated it

5 stars