a feeling hurt on every page
The Details, by Ia Genberg and translated by Kira Josefsson, is 5 x 8 x 0.6 inches & 144 pages of clear-eyed intellectual cruelty.
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Because of circumstances out of my control, I read The Details twice in quick succession. For a book to withstand this stress test of back-to-back reading, I think it has to be so precise. The Details only became more enthralling, more peculiar, more cutting.
The Details begins with a febrile woman Proust-ing herself upon her bed and remembering a series of people she knew. The book divides into a handful of character portraits who include an ex-girlfriend (now a brilliant and intellectually dishonest talking head) and an erratic, glimmering ex-roommate (now at large). It’s a puzzle why these particular characters preoccupy the narrator’s feverish brain, a brain that recalls the texture of their personalities with close-up focus while generally going all hazy about the seemingly important stuff. The process of reading The Details is like the process of remembering itself.
To the title of this letter: The Details also kept hurting my feelings because this book is so waspish. Its criticisms seemed wielded at how many of us just socialize in our happy dumb way. It reminds me of seeing The History Boys with my parents, when one of the characters snarks about being a intellectual who “loves words” and my mom just looked at me with big brave eyes in the theater—because sometimes you will be mildly eviscerated when you least expect it.
If you don’t want your feelings hurt, skip this passage, please for your own good!!!
A mean part of me wants to send that to everyone who quotes ‘we tell ourselves stories in order to live.’ And with that, I will say: goodbye for now!
The Details was also an installment of Purse Book Gals-On-The-Go Official Book Club Book. Here’s what a few Gals on the Go thought:
“I fear to meet Ia Genberg because she might describe me.” - Mac A.
“I think it actually affirmed how I think, which is maybe good and maybe dangerous. It validated my habit of yearning for people who are no longer with me and viewing the lives of others as ‘frames’ for my own.” - Tyler “the Details Keep the Score” B., who literally had a fever as he was reporting on his details!!
“The last segment actually hurt my feelings the most, because I think I have incredible politics when I might be just petty about authority in general.” -Christina, who read this on New Year’s Day
“My favorite book I read all last year. It’s surprising and full of heft!” - Anna L
ok wait yeah the anecdote thing did hurt my feelings