A review by hignah
A Handbook of Disappointed Fate by Anne Boyer

challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense slow-paced

5.0

anne boyer doesn't make it easy on you, but she makes the dead speak.

at times the meditations in a handbook for disappointed fate strike with the clarity of a hand across the face: 'no', 'when the lambs rise up against the bird of prey,' 'a house that enforces isolation but denies privacy,' 'click-bait thanatos,' 'please stand still the doors are closing,' 'the harm,' 'woman sitting at a machine.'

other essays require a suspension of the belief in language, and the willingness to let boyer's poetic critique of capitalism and patriarchy inspire action through a hypnotized osmosis rather than a clarion call. 

this book begs for more time. buy it, don't borrow it.