This edition of All Booked was originally emailed to subscribers on March 9, 2022. To receive Emily Cosentino Lee and Caitlin Fitch’s literary newsletter in your inbox, sign up at independent.com/newsletters.
Recently, I read Luster by Raven Leilani. This impressive debut novel is a witty examination of race in the U.S. while also exploring the ways women twist themselves into knots to please mediocre men. So much of what makes this book great is what is not said by the characters or the author. The story is told through the eyes of a young Black woman making a series of bad decisions while living in New York City. The main character, Edith, reminds me so much of Candace, the protagonist in Severance by Ling Ma. I started thinking about how these two characters would probably be friends or coworkers if this were real life. Severance is another smart book making statements about race, womanhood, capitalism, and much more, but through the eyes of a young Chinese-American woman living through a pandemic-fueled apocalypse. When paired, Severance and Luster, although quite different in plot, make an even more powerful indictment of patriarchal norms and racism in the United States.
These connections in theme and style got my synapses firing, so I created a collection of books that speak to each other across pages and authors.
