Why read Litany for the Long Moment?

Book cover of Litany for the Long Moment

Book description

Literary Nonfiction. Asian & Asian American Studies. The orphan at the center of LITANY FOR THE LONG MOMENT is without homeland and without language. In three linked lyric essays, Arnold attempts to claim her own linguistic, cultural, and aesthetic lineage. Born in Korea and adopted to the US as a…

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Why read it?

1 author picked Litany for the Long Moment as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Maddie Norris

Author

“I am writing into the rupture, the absence left there,” writes Mary-Kim Arnold in her book.

Framed through a Korean television questionnaire, the book investigates how loss (of parents, of a homeland, of language) dislocates us. This lyric essay collages personal and public documents, rifling through history in search of tethers, poetics rubbing against the barest of facts.

I’m still, over ten years later, combing through my father’s things, knowing, as this book does, that the only answer is the search. It’s the desire to know, not the knowing itself, that matters.

From Maddie's list on creative nonfiction books to gift your grieving friend.