zoo island by tomas rivera in english translation

A remarkable encounter with a book whose narrative is built from a singular question: where can the mind go when the body reaches its maximum threshold of experience? And from another time completely (1915) I read for the first time this year Jack London’s STAR ROVER. I also got a lot from Harry Sword’s book/long form playlist MONOLITHIC UNDERTOW (White Rabbit), which surveys the leaking of what seems like a singular drone through genres, epochs and ideologies. The essential contribution here is that to aestheticise politics is, under the right circumstance, not to decorate or to inappropriately beautify it, but rather an essential mechanism to make it sensible. An undeviating announcement of the subversive potential of contemporary aesthetic practices.

Much closer to my filter bubble is Eyal Weizman and Matthew Fuller’s INVESTIGATIVE AESTHETICS (Verso). Kim Ghattas and I may be in parallel ideological lanes and yet the cluster-fuck constellation she accumulates around 1979, in her book BLACK WAVE (Wildfire), is a revelation (not least because we may finally have the answer here to who killed Moussa Sadr). The White Review depends upon the support of its readers, and with your support we’ll continue to create space for new art and writing in 2022 and beyond. This year, we’re taking our annual fundraiser online.

Members of THE WHITE REVIEW editorial team, contributors and friends of the magazine reveal the books they’ve been reading and revisiting in 2021.

Zoo island by tomas rivera in english translation