We’re excited to announce that our July Book Club selection is Socialist Realism by Trisha Low, forthcoming from Coffee House Press on August 13, but available to Rumpus Book Club members in just a few weeks!
When Trisha Low moves West, her journey is motivated by the need to arrive “somewhere better”—someplace utopian, like revolution; or safe, like home; or even clarifying, like identity. Instead, she faces the end of her relationships, a family whose values she has difficulty sharing, and America’s casual racism, sexism, and homophobia.
In this book-length essay, the problem of how to account for one’s life comes to the fore—sliding unpredictably between memory, speculation, self-criticism, and art criticism, Low seeks answers that she knows she won’t find. Attempting to reconcile her desires with her radical politics, she asks: do our quests to fulfill our deepest wishes propel us forward, or keep us trapped in the rubble of our deteriorating world?
Chelsea Hodson, author of Tonight I’m Someone Else, writes:
It’s a joy to watch Trisha Low’s mind at work in this book as she contemplates utopia, identity, and how art expands her understanding of the world. Low doesn’t just have an idea—she interrogates it, examines it, and cuts it open. Socialist Realism is sharp, inventive, and transformative.
Subscribe to the Rumpus Book Club by June 15 to join us in reading Socialist Realism, culminating in an exclusive online discussion with author Trisha Low about the book!
