A finalist for the 2019 National Book Award, these eight piercing explorations on beauty, media, money, and more, Tressie McMillan Cottom—award-winning professor and acclaimed author of Lower Ed—writes about all that is right and much that is wrong with this thing we call society.
Thick is an invitation into the life and mind of a person with ferocious intelligence combined with a wicked sense of humor, stunning erudition and a spirit of not giving a hoot about what others think in the best possible way ... Cottom’s intersectionality is the work of a writer seeing the world clearly and deeply, and connecting the dots in fresh and revealing ways.
Despite these high stakes, Thick is more thematically broad and stylistically free than Lower Ed, which should appeal to readers who like intersectional analysis with a side of pop culture. The playful, familiar tone of the eight essays reminds readers why the author has captured the attention of [several outlets], and her many social media followers. The essays in Thick are economical in their use of words. They can deliver a swift punch in the gut but also be pithy, tongue-in-cheek, and fun ... McMillan Cottom transforms... narrative moments into analyses of whiteness, black misogyny, and status-signaling as means of survival for black women like her mother and herself ... Thick’s essays challenge readers to go further, beyond 'race 101.'
Essential reading for our times. These essays examine race, feminism, and culture with fierce intelligence ... The collection illustrates the power of a writer willing to reveal her passions, both personal and intellectual ... With its mix of personal writing, research, and cultural critique, Tressie McMillan Cottom’s Thick: And Other Essays shows the continued vitality of the essay genre while also making an essential argument about black women’s place in American culture.
