| Title | : | A World Out of Reach: Dispatches from Life under Lockdown |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 030025735X |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780300257359 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 232 |
| Publication | : | First published November 24, 2020 |
“If only our response to the pandemic on other fronts could have been as speedy and potent as this literary one.”— Kirkus Reviews , starred review
In beautifully written and powerfully thought prose, A World Out of Reach offers a crucial record of COVID-19 and the cataclysmic spring of 2020—a record for us and for posterity—in the arresting voices of poets, essayists, scholars, and health care workers. Ranging from matters of policy and social justice to ancient history and personal stories of living under lockdown, this vivid compilation from The Yale Review presents a first draft of one of the most tumultuous periods in recent history.
Contributors:
Katie Kitamura • Laura Kolbe • Nitin Ahuja • Rena Xu • Alicia Christoff • Miranda Featherstone • Maya C. Popa • Major Jackson • John Witt • Octávio Luiz Motta Ferraz • Joan Naviyuk Kane • Nell Freudenberger • Briallen Hopper • Brandon Shimoda • Yusef Komunyakaa • Laren McClung • Eric O’Keefe-Krebs • Sean Lynch • Millicent Marcus • Meghana Mysore • Rachel Jamison Webster • Emily Ziff Griffin • Rowan Ricardo Philips • Kathryn Lofton • Monica Ferrell • Russell Morse • Randi Hutter Epstein • Noreen Khawaja • Victoria Chang • Joyelle McSweeney • Khameer Kidia • Emily Greenwood • Elisa Gabbert • Emily Bernard • Hafizah Geter • Emily Gogolak • Roger Reeves
A World Out of Reach: Dispatches from Life under Lockdown Reviews
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A World Out of Reach, Dispatches from Life under Lockdown is a collection - or "compendium" as described by the editor - of pieces dedicated to the apocalyptic spring of 2020 borne down by COVID-19. A multitude of voices (poets, essayists, scholars, health care workers, students) share a piece each, all revolving around the coronavirus theme.
Ranging from matters of social policy and justice to history and personal stories of life under lockdown, this compilation by Yale Review presents an important record about one of the most turbulent periods in recent history.
It was infuriating to read Russell Morse's piece 'The Jail Crisis', where he narrates his experience of trying to protect especially vulnerable people with underlying health conditions to get out of Rikers Island, New York City, the most overcrowded correctional facility where no measures were being taken to protect the incarcerated. Those that managed to get a temporary release didn't fare much better either, facing no prospects of getting social benefits, healthcare or roof above their heads, ending up homeless.
There are several accounts by healthcare workers that recount the chilling reality of operating hospitals with no protective gear and dead bodies piling up in front of buildings, after having run of space of storing them.
Numerous pieces focused on what the pandemic harshly revealed to us: the vast inequalities in our society that saw poor people and people of colour taking the biggest hit. There was a mention of the 'favelas' in Brazil where people have no access to basic sanitation and live cramped together.
In 'Get the Shovel', Kathryn Lofton investigates the effects of not having a chance to bury our dead like they deserve. Professor Millicent Marcus shares her newfound appreciation of Giovanni Boccaccio's Decameron that deals with the Black Death in Florence in 1348 - a book she's been teaching for quite a while, but could not identify with until now.
There is an incredible piece by Rachel Jamison Webster, a sad, poignant and beautifully written tribute about her aunt's death from COVID-19.
A World Out of Reach is a book about the pandemic, which I assume many will be reluctant to read until they're ready, seeing as we're still deep down into survival mode. For those that are reading about the coronavirus online anxiously, I suggest turning to this instead: it might offer the perspective you crave.
Thanks to Yale University Press and @netgalley for my advanced digital copy.
#AWorldOutOfReach #NetGalley -
It's hard to remember that we're living history right now. We fall into routines that become the new normal.
As is usual for collections, I preferred some essays over others, but they served to remind of the worldwide trauma that, somehow, I've lived through and not metabolized. My only real word of detraction is that the essays are almost all urban-centric, especially New York City. I would have liked to see a rural voice that reflected the unique challenges of a pandemic in an already economically depressed, infrastructure-deprived community. That said, I'm sure there will be many more books coming about 2020 that will give me that voice. -
I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Many voices speaking out about the COVID-19 pandemic and how it has affected so many lives. From New York to Africa, the fallout from this global pandemic is well documented and presented. -
The first half was more an educational seminar of COVID facts, but the second half felt more like the writer's documentations of what they've actually been through during COVID. It was going to be 2 stars until I read the last several chapters, which bumped it up a star.
