Crying Book

Award-winning poet Heather Christle has just lost a dear friend to suicide and must reckon with her own struggles with depression and the birth of her first child. How she faces her joy, grief, anxiety, impending motherhood, and conflicted truce with the world results in a moving meditation on the nature, rapture, and perils of crying―from the history of tear-catching gadgets (including the woman who designed a gun that shoots tears) to the science behind animal tears (including moths who drink them) to the fraught role of white women's tears in racist violence.

Told in short, poetic snippets, The Crying Book delights and surprises, as well as rigorously examines how mental illness can affect a family across generations and how crying can express women’s agency―or lack of agency―in everyday life. Christle’s gift is the freshness of her voice and honesty of her approach, both of which create an intimacy with readers as she explores a human behavior broadly experienced but rarely questioned. A beautiful tribute to the power of crying, and to working through despair to tears of joy.

Poeta premiata Heather Christle tocmai a pierdut un prieten drag din cauza sinuciderii si trebuie sa tina cont de propriile lupte cu depresia si de nasterea primului ei copil. Cum se confrunta cu bucuria, durerea, anxietatea, maternitatea iminenta si armistitiul conflictual cu lumea are ca rezultat o meditatie miscatoare asupra naturii, rapirii si pericolelor plansului - din istoria gadgeturilor care prind lacrimi (inclusiv femeia care a proiectat un arma care trage lacrimi) la stiinta din spatele lacrimilor de animale (inclusiv molii care le beau) la rolul plin de lacrimi ale femeilor albe in violenta rasista. Spus pe scurt, fragmente poetice, The Crying Book incanta si surprize, precum si examineaza riguros cum boala mintala poate afecta o familie de-a lungul generatiilor si modul in care plansul poate exprima agentia femeilor - sau lipsa de agentie - in viata de zi cu zi.