PositiveFull StopHeti’s wavering balance has led many critics to hate on this book, saying its lyric passages, interspersed conversations with friends and family, divination experiments, and wonderings are haphazard, too long, in desperate need of an editor. Which I can understand — there certainly are areas in this book I struggled to follow ... But as I adjusted to her form, I began to think: isn’t that the point? It’s a book of deliberation, and the way many of our minds work ... I am not here specifically to defend Heti’s section breaks, jumping points, or digressions, though I may in parts do just that. What I am here to do is consider how the criticism of this book plays right into a larger story Heti is telling ... Wandering into this territory of non-normative time, I think primarily of \'queer time\' ... This analysis is what I feel is missing from the discussion of Heti’s book — and, to some extent from the book itself ... for all the plumbing of depths that Heti is willing to do, she does not fully go there. Queerness and queer time hide in plain sight ... I’ve only whispered to friends that I liked this book. I say it hesitantly, with caveats ... But here I am, relating to the book and wanting to extend the conversation it’s begun.
