May Recommendations
Pink sneakers: I went into the shoe store thinking I was going to buy a pair of black or white sneakers (probably black, let’s be real). My last pair of mid-season casual shoes (ie, not the Birks I wear all summer or the Docs I wear all winter) was a pair of black Adidas that got caught in a rainstorm and have smelled vaguely mildewy since, despite my best attempts. And here I was with a few minutes to browse shoes and hopefully come out with something to wear during spring. But there was such a precious pink pair of Adidas sneakers in the window. I walked into the store, resisting the display with the same sneakers right up front. But as I walked around, I kept comparing every pair to the pink ones and wishing they were pink.
Reader, you already know what happened: I am now the proud owner of pink sneakers. They are SO joyful. And pink can match a lot, if you try.
No Judgment by Lauren Oyler: I bought this book last week because I love essays, especially essays that integrate first-person narrative with cultural criticism. I didn’t realize that Oyler lives in Berlin, and that the book contains a stunning essay about English-speakers living in Berlin. Using a metaphor of getting one’s bicycle stuck in a tram track (I am still too nervous a new cyclist to get around Berlin this way, but the metaphor works regardless), Oyler writes: “The cliches of Anglophone writing about Berlin are like this: you might be thinking nonstop about maneuvering at a strong enough angle to avoid getting stick, and then somehow you find yourself explaining that the place ‘has always been a city of exiles.’ There’s just not a lot of space available to ride freely.”
Oyler’s essay is especially resonant as I come into the end of my time in Berlin – I move in about a month – and try to figure out how to talk about my time here. The experiences of being an American expat, a Jew from a place with a lot of Jews that is not saturated with Jewish death, have been written about so much that the desire to say something new itself feels stale. It was delightful to read about this dilemma itself.
(NB: most of the other essays in the book are great, but I don’t recommend the one about anxiety. It is not exciting or interesting!)
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