Review: Known and Strange Things: Essays

Known and Strange Things: Essays by Teju Cole
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

An excellent collection of essays discussing everything from art, literature, race, countries, economics, society, and just recounting events. 

I must admit, much of it was too erudite for me, especially toward the beginning, discussing authors/artists/photographers I had never heard of, and I felt I would have gotten a lot more out of these essays if I knew more about them. 

Fredrik Backman said "I'm a white, heterosexual, Western European man with an education and a job. There's not a single organism in the entire universe who knows less about inequality than me. But I'm trying to learn.", and I was reminded of that quote when reading Teju Cole's essays about race, whether in America, Europe or Rio de Janeiro. They reminded me I will never truly understand what it's like to be a black man (or in anyone else's shoes really), but I should keep trying nonetheless, and his essays are a great way to do that. 

There were some instances where I disagreed with him, like some of his statements about economics. But overall I enjoyed all of these essays, and discovered many new things thanks to them. I also looked up René Burri's photo "Men on a rooftop", and followed his journey as he tried to pinpoint exactly which building it was (on Google maps). I wasn't successful. I'm assuming he was on the Altino Arantes building, but I couldn't see the view from the photo. 

Many of the essays were blasts from the past (like Kony 2012) and I can't help wondering what he makes of Trump, responses to Covid, race relations today, etc. 

One of my bookmarked quotes, discussing elections:

"We participate in things not because they are ideal, but because they are not"

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