Black Paper (2021) by Teju Cole

Book Review

Black Paper (2021)

by Teju Cole

   Black Paper is a book of collected essays by author Teju Cole.  Anyone who has read Coles novels is well aware that he is incredibly erudite and sophisticated, a characteristic that manifests in his professional life, where he authors criticism for publications like the New York Times and teaches writing at Columbia University.  My initial interest in Cole was spurred by his similarity to W.G. Sebald in terms of the themes of places and psychology (and tremendous, cross-cultural erudition) and I wasn't suprised to see Sebald referenced by Cole in these essays, 

       "W. G. Sebald, who, of the writers I have studied, might be the one in whom this intense, emotionally charged but intellectually unflagging approach is most pervasive. Sebald wrote entire books that are almost nothing but the headiness of an associative dream. The Rings of Saturn is a narrative of a fictional walk in Suffolk, the journal of a man who seems to carry around an antiquarian hypertext library in his head."

    It was one of those "a-ha" moments but unfortunately I didn't take careful notes- which I should have because I checked the book out on the Library app in eformat (you can take notes via the Kindle App.)  Alas, the hold at this point is several weeks long.  There is no questioning that the collected essay format of literature is a weak sibling of the novel.  Maybe a handful of essays in any collection have some kind of staying power, and then its like, you have to read the rest.