JUST US

Rankine wraps around subject-matter like charm work.

Book cover for Claudia Rankine, Just Us, 2020, Graywolf Press

Rankine wraps around subject-matter like charm work. I read the book in three sittings. Littlest distance between reader and the narrator. The text expands slowly, beautifully, inwards. Certainly an enquiry for the aesthete and for the curious although we are not here to pry. Very stimulating serpentine energy. First-rate contemporary culture, and interested in luring more of us into constructive work. You quickly become your own protagonist, figuring out your own free-will. She enjoys herself writing, you can tell. A lot of desire, waves, urges. Poetry. Very astute. I think that she is a writer of exultation urgently interested with the present moment. The writing so pointed you’ll shear. Direction of travel is laid from the outset and there is robust tension throughout. The threshold remains open at length. During that time, we know exactly where we are. This work is voluptuous, ultimately concerned with imagination(s), and feels generative.