We are all hinged to some definition of a community, be it as simple as where we live, complex as the beliefs we share, or as intentional as those we call family. In an episodic personal essay, Casey Plett draws on a range of firsthand experiences to start a conversation about the larger implications of community as a word, an idea, and a symbol. With each thread a cumulative definition of community, and what it has come to mean to Plett, emerges.
Looking at phenomena from transgender literature, to Mennonite history, to hacker houses of Silicon Valley, and the rise of nationalism in North America, Plett delves into the thorny intractability of communityās boons and faults. Deeply personal, authoritative in its illuminations,Ā On CommunityĀ is an essential contribution to the larger cultural discourse that asks how, and to what socio-political ends, we form bonds with one another.
Praise forĀ On Community
āDonāt expect to walk away fromĀ On CommunityĀ with easy answers. Plett refuses to explore the titular concept āblithelyā or to simplify it āto the point of untruth.ā Splitting it into practical and theoretical definitions is ātoo simple.ā Instead, she weaves together a nuanced narrative that unpacks the termās intricacies while maintaining its importance.ā
āLiterary Review of Canada
āA tightly woven, academic and literary brain dump of concepts and notions, posits and prompts, with a flight of challenging questions.ā
āThe Miramichi Reader
āPlett uses her firsthand experiences to eventually reach a cumulative definition of community and explore how we form bonds with one another.ā
āCBC Books
āPlett ruminates on the importance of community in succinct, snappy prose.ā
āWinnipeg Free Press
āWith humour and verve, Plett cuts through the platitudes often associated with how we talk about community. She offers a welcome, incisive analysis of power and belonging that feels as lived-in as it is hopeful.ā
āThe Tyee
āPlettās essay is a thoughtful, rich and engaging unpacking of the complexity behind simplistic ideas, and a clear-eyed consideration of what really is a universal human experience.ā
āPickle Me This
āPlett reflects on her Mennonite roots, trans literature, nationalism, Silicon Valley, and the idea of family, in this consideration of how and why we manage to live together at all.ā
āQuill and Quire
Praise for Casey Plett
āPlett has a characteristic style that manages to merge tenderness with Prairie toughnessāa style on display in these stories of trans women seeking somethingāgroundedness, maybe, but that dreamlike quality of desire, too.ā
āGlobe and Mail
āPlettās trademark skills at authentic characterization, evocative setting, and insight into the lives of trans women are on full display in this superb collection of short stories. The stories crackle with quiet complexity.ā
āAutostraddleĀ (āBest Queer Books of the Yearā)
āPlett tells beautiful stories of trans women as they exist in the world: tangible, fallible, tender and hardened.ā
āXtra
āIāve always admired Plettās ability to capture the tenderest and most complicated intimacies between characters. Exploring addiction, loss, consent, and shifting desires, each story in her extraordinary new collection is somehow even more tender and emotionally complex than the last.ā
āMegan Milks,Ā The Rumpus
āBoth bittersweet and beautiful, Plett writes perfectly imperfect characters that make you feel less alone.ā
āThe IndependentĀ (UK)