Posted on behalf of Raka Bhattacharyya

The Organs of Sense, by Adam Ehrlich Sachs. Click for catalog link.

Where to begin with such an absurd, surreal tale that defies logic, physics, and all concept of sense?

We all must begin somewhere, and I will begin by saying that this is the sort of book that somehow makes enough sense to not make any sense, or it doesn’t make enough sense in order to make actual sense. 

It is the inexplicable tale of an astrologer, who, without eyes, predicted some of the most important and ground-breaking astrological discoveries. To see whether or not the aforementioned astrological events were predicted accurately, young Gottfried Leibnitz braves through the desert to meet with the astrologer. 

What unfolds when the astrologer tells Leibnitz the tale of his life is one of the most surreal, nonsensical tales that you may ever come across. It’s a complex tale of confusion, love, hate, and madness that makes less and less sense the more that you read yet continues to grow on you. The astrologer, being one of the most confounding characters in the stories, continues to grow more and more intriguing despite making less and less sense throughout the story.

Sachs has a skill of endearing us to the human condition, which is clear in this nonsensical story and how it appeals to its readers. While the story is exaggerated, it is this exact quality that I personally admired very deeply. The shared madness of the prince and the king, the loneliness of the astrologer and his strange, disillusioned relationship with his son- all of these interactions have a profound sense of emotion attached to them purely due to their strange nature.

And this is something that humans all have in common- that we all experience things and form inexplicable relationships with one another that we cannot fully comprehend. And this is an aspect of the human nature that Sachs elaborates on and capitalizes on with all of the experiences and interactions of the characters in the story; reassuring the readers that these strange occurrences or bonds that we form need not be completely understood and instead enjoyed. 

Sachs’ work encourages readers to enjoy the bits of life that appeal to us yet never make any sense. 

If you’re looking for the type of book that makes little to no sense but somehow teaches you more about yourself and the other humans around you, look no further, because Adam Ehrlich Sachs’ The Organs of Sense has it down to a T.

Adam Ehrlich Sachs, photo by Lulu Liu. Click for author website.

Reviewed by Zoe Stein 

The Testaments by Margaret Atwood. Click for catalog link.

Location: Uni High New Books (temporarily shelved)
Call number: Fiction At96te

Location: Residence Halls Illinois Street SciFi/Fantasy
Call Number: 813 At96te

Margaret Atwood’s latest novel, The Testaments, is on hundreds of to-read lists and has been shortlisted for the 2019 Man-Booker Prize. A sequel to The Handmaid’s Tale, the book is yet another foray into the horrific world of Gilead, following three all-new perspectives. Surprisingly, though, Offred barely makes an appearance. Instead, Atwood gives voice to the vicious Aunt Lydia, Agnes, a child of Gilead, and Daisy, a Canadian child who finds herself embroiled in a plot to take down Gilead.

While all three women are represented in the chapters of the novel, the most compelling ones are those of Aunt Lydia. During and after the events of The Handmaid’s Tale, Aunt Lydia was seen as an agent of Gilead—a woman destined to spend the rest of her life enforcing the misogynist laws of the new country. The Testaments, though, provides depth to the previously one-dimensional character. Her past, present, and innermost thoughts are explored as the reader learns that everything is not quite as it seems. Every chapter is compelling and utterly addictive.

The Testaments is a departure from the plot structure of The Handmaid’s Tale. While the latter is an exploration of Offred’s past and the world around her, The Testaments reads more like a thriller. It is action based and plot heavy most of the time and character exploration is at a minimum, with the exception of Aunt Lydia. Though the novel is certainly entertaining, it’s undoubtedly a different reading experience than that of The Handmaid’s Tale. 

While certainly a compelling read, it is unfair to compare The Testaments to Atwood’s earlier exploration into the world. This new book is an entirely different experience, and I urge readers to go in with an open mind.

Margaret Atwood. Photo by Jean Malek. Click for author’s website.

Read other reviews:

New York Times

Kirkus Reviews 

Publisher’s Weekly 

Reviewed by Sybil Mahone

Junk by Tommy Pico. Click for Catalog link.

Location: Main Stacks
Call Number: PS3616.I288 J86 2018

Location: ResHalls FloridaAvenue Circulating Coll
Call Number: 811 P588ju

Are these tweets or texts or a poem? Read this book-length gay breakup epic by Native poet Tommy “Teebs” Pico and decide for yourself. “I’m not going to just turn down a donut unless sex in the derriere is comin,” Teebs declares. Same, Teebs. Same. Imperialism is junk. Consumption is junk. Love is junk. *Junk* declares and questions and makes penis jokes about all of it. I love this book. It’s *Junk*.

Author Tommy Pico, photo from personal website.

Read other reviews:

Los Angeles Review of Books 

Kenyon Review

Publisher’s Weekly

Reviewed by Corey Van Landingham

Ghost Of, by Diana Khoi Nguyen. Click to view catalog entry.

Location: Literatures & Languages New Books
Call Number: PS3614.G85 A6 2018

Ghost Of may be one of the most successful—and surely the most intriguing—recent books of elegy. Nguyen takes on the liminal spaces of grief after a brother’ suicide and translates them not only into the linguistic field of these poems, but also the visual. Included here are family photographs with the brother cut out, and the shape of that cutting pasted onto new pages, collage-like, where that void is populated with new language. And the book is unflinching in its approach to this sudden loss: “Let’s get on with it,” Nguyen writes in “I Keep Getting Things Wrong.” “When I return to that house, I eat the food / left out for my dead brother. I don’t waste much.” This is a remarkable debut collection from a deeply wise poet.

To learn more about Corey Van Landingham, please read her collection of poetry entitled Antidote.

Photo of author Diana Khoi Nguyen. Click to visit website.

Read other reviews here:

Kenyon Review

Jet Fuel Review

diaCRITICS

Reviewed by Sebastián Maldonado-Vélez

So Far So Good: Final Poems 2014-2018, by Ursula Le Guin

Location: Literatures & Languages New Books
Call Number: PS3562.E42 A6 2018

Location: ResHalls FloridaAvenue Circulating Coll
Call Number: 811 L526so

You might recognize Le Guin’s name from an impressive number of science fiction and fantasy books that she wrote throughout her lifetime. A somewhat more understated aspect of her literary life includes poetry, this collection being the last that was edited shortly before her death in 2018. Le Guin’s poetry attempts and achieves a precision that comes from a respect the poet had toward all subjects: “All earth’s dust/has been life, held soul, is holy.” Her language reminds us how words and concepts we might think of as mundane just need a slight nudge to be revolutionary, revealing. I especially recommend this book to readers who feel uneasy when reading poetry, afraid that the poet is trying to deceive them in some way. Le Guin is open and honest about her intentions. In this collection she wishes us to meditate on the small to better understand the big.

Ursula Le Guin. Photo by Marian Wood Kolisch. Click to see website.

Read other reviews:

Portland Review

Publisher’s Weekly

Posted on behalf of Karen M. Huck, Library Specialist

The Balcony by Jane Delury

The Balcony by Jane Delury. Click the image to see it in the Library catalog.

Location: Literatures & Languages New Books
Call Number: PS3604.E44765 B35 2018

A dream of a novel, Delury begins her book with what appears to be an autobiographical account of being an au pair in a house in the outskirts of Paris for a family with “une jeune fille,” that simply sucks you in. The au pair is given the larger, upper room with the balcony to stay in. The double entendre of the term “between two” follows all of the accounts of the myriad people who dwelled in the house. Each story does somehow intertwine with other stories and eventually a history of a magnificent house and its inhabitants comes to the fore, but ultimately the stories illuminate what happens between couples, siblings, parents and children and all manner of relations people have. The Balcony witnesses all. The prose is elegant and smooth, enjoy this story as you would a meal, slowly yet with gusto.

Read reviews from:

Kirkus Reviews

Publisher’s Weekly

The New York Times