This took me longer to read than it should have, though in truth, it's something of a slow burn. One has to be in the mood for its scholarly, sometimes-dry delivery.

This felt to me like C.S. Lewis's The Four Loves and Nicole Krauss's The History of Love had been tossed into a blender together, to beautiful results. Perhaps a couple more books to add as well to that mix, not to denigrate the text, as it's truly inspired writing. bell hooks is a gift, and had a gift. I'm chagrined that this, in 2022, served as my introduction to her. But it's good to be good to oneself, and we should all see it this way: Whenever we arrive at a certain author (book, artist, musician, album, film, painting, etc.), we're seeing it at the right time. It's best to honor that, to slow down and simply bear witness.

(I say this more for me than any of you.)

I appreciated that hooks referenced or quoted everyone from Parker Palmer to Marianne Williamson, Henri Nouwen to James Baldwin, the Beatles to Lil' Kim. One tweak: It felt like, late in the game here, the book began to overly liberally quote others rather than sharing new, unique insights or prose.