A review by sneaky_tequila
The Body: An Essay by Jenny Boully
5.0
I'm completely in love with Jenny Boully. I've read some of other works before, and I have to say that the line she walks between poetry and essay is nothing short of masterful.
I'm also a sucker for any work that's dually about language and the inadequacies of language at the same time. The idea of an entire essay expressed without the essay is something close to (if not) sheer brilliance, and it's also amazing to me just how much Boully trusts the reader to then, in their own minds, replace the narrative that isn't blatantly written down. Because Boully pushes thresholds on form and function so much, it's hard for me to nail down exactly what I would have imagined the essay having been, but there's a beauty in that kind of non-conformity, too. It could have been any number of things. The possibilities are only limited by the imagination of the reader.
What I found most appealing is the idea this essay suggests in the underneath of it all--that there will always be untold facets of a story, that language is an illusion.
I loved it.
I'm also a sucker for any work that's dually about language and the inadequacies of language at the same time. The idea of an entire essay expressed without the essay is something close to (if not) sheer brilliance, and it's also amazing to me just how much Boully trusts the reader to then, in their own minds, replace the narrative that isn't blatantly written down. Because Boully pushes thresholds on form and function so much, it's hard for me to nail down exactly what I would have imagined the essay having been, but there's a beauty in that kind of non-conformity, too. It could have been any number of things. The possibilities are only limited by the imagination of the reader.
What I found most appealing is the idea this essay suggests in the underneath of it all--that there will always be untold facets of a story, that language is an illusion.
I loved it.