December 20, 2024
Writer and book designer Abraham's (Cyclettes) foray into experimental memoir is by turns introspective, exasperating, and astonishing. Framed as an attempt to understand and explain a multiyear unrequited love affair with a roommate, the book incorporates journalistic writing, drawings, ephemera, and a healthy dose of etymological curiosity. This is a highly personal examination of an intimate relationship that sometimes borders on an obsession. Abraham's love of complex language is evident. Content is gathered loosely into chapters organized by love-related terminology--Eros, philia, and more--and chronicles Abraham's relationship to her beloved. Artwork, handwritten notes, and photographs illustrate and underscore the theories, memories, and rationalizations that make up this book. Some passages read like poetry, whereas others are more like diary entries. VERDICT A surprising and at times lyrical meditation that strives to grasp the meaning of a relationship that is not quite a friendship nor a love affair but something else. Confessional and ambitious, this memoir will engage readers with its visceral recreation of the experience of unrequited love.--Rebecca Brody
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December 1, 2024
Love is a quiet presence that permeates everything we are and everything we do, both for ourselves and for others. Book-cover designer and writer Abraham (Cyclettes, 2022) explores this idea in this creative, mixed-media memoir. The book starts with Abraham finding a new place to live, and when she later celebrates her birthday there, she develops feelings for a roommate. Abraham's greatest strength is in relaying small moments to readers, aided by visuals such as drawings and old receipts that give these moments a sense of intimacy and tangibility. The illustrations also serve as an anchor when Abraham discusses her struggles with sexuality and the bigger questions of what love looks like outside of romance and sex and what it means to truly love and be loved. Memoir readers who enjoy nonlinear storytelling and books that test the limits of what makes a memoir will feel at home here, as will all readers interested in discussing the forms of love that exist outside of mainstream heteronormative culture.
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