Welcome to Litsy!

A novel that does what it sets out to do perfectly; but what that is isn't for everyone. An unnamed academic narrator (likely a Black woman or afab person--but deliberately ambiguous) chronicles their life's love affairs and how they interrupt/fuel their decade-long dissertation. This is all character study, with an amusing, unreliable narrator. For anyone with a background in humanities academia, THEORY is funny, strange, and thought-provoking.

"The problem with not having a lover is that there is no distraction from the person I am... There's no one to fix, in other words, except me."

Omg Dionne Brand, a hit straight for the gut!

"My distractions seem more compelling than the dissertation. Why is it that the mind can be caught up so heavily in feeling? We have been taught that the mind can be marshalled and feeling can be sublimated, but this, I swear, is false. Feeling is more compelling and insistent than what we call 'ideas'. Understandably, this is my own theory. No citation. Just self-diagnosis."
#QueerBooks #BlackBooks #LGBTQ #BlackVoices

Excited to start this novel by iconic Black Canadian lesbian poet Dionne Brand! The cover is so beautiful. #BlackBooks #QueerBooks #LGBTQBooks #LGBTQ #BlackLivesMatter

“The bodies that are the most heavily policed in society point to the sites of freedom. Of what freedom-to-come might look like.” -Dionne Brand, speaking at #VWF2018

5🌟/5 This is a hard book to review. It was honestly unlike anything I have ever read! She guides the reader through tough subject matter. Crossing over between race, gender, politics, culture, class and love brilliantly and seamlessly. She also made the narrator nameless and genderless throughout, how facinating and brilliant! Though short this was a vivid and powerful read.

#dionnebrand #canlit #canadianauthor #bookreview #bookblogger

I have had the opportunity to learn from and work with Dionne Brand in the past, and she is one of the most brilliant people I have ever met. I can‘t say that I fully understand what happened in this book, but I enjoyed it anyways. Theory weaves together the all-consuming world of academia with the all-consuming world of love and attraction, and touches on a variety of issues in contemporary society.

#netgalley #canlit