The countless interviews with Duckworth’s ‘Grittiest’ and most successful people were dissatisfying as they lacked depth or diversity in experience. Duckworth missed a chance to discuss Grit in relation to neurodivergence or BIPOC experiences where Grit doesn’t always correlate with success. Neurodivergent people would naturally fall very low on her ‘Grit Scale’ despite having to work harder to achieve seemingly minor tasks. Passion and productivity cannot always be aligned and Duckworth misses this. As someone with ADHD I was left feeling Grit was an echo of an unhelpful internal dialogue that most neurodivergent people have, that they need to just “try harder”. 

Burn This by Lanford Wilson
Genre: Drama
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐1/2

Mannie’s thoughts: A brief summary: two dancers and a copywriter share a Soho loft. The male dancer, a homosexual, has just died in a boating accident, and it becomes clear, in their grief, that the two remaining roommates were in love with him – ish.

Picked this one up during a very long and boring shift at work, I don’t know the last time I read a play nor why I picked this one. Short on time I just grabbed it. I had no idea how well respected the playwright or play was. I enjoyed. Definitely out-dated in parts but a story just about life.

Intermezzo by Sally Rooney
Genre: Contemporary Fiction
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Alice’s thoughts: Going into Intermezzo, I was a bit skeptical. My only experience of Sally Rooney prior to reading this book was the famously introspective and viscerally horny Normal People tv adaptation, so I didn’t know what to expect. I am happy to say that this was a really great introduction to Rooney’s writing.

The story focuses on two brothers, Ivan and Peter, in the year following their father’s death, and examines their romantic relationships, as well as their relationships with each other in the wake of this great loss. After an argument, the two isolate themselves, avoiding each other to an almost pathological degree, until the story’s emotionally raw and guttural climax. At once brilliantly funny and deeply serious, Intermezzo explores the messy underbelly of familial love in a time of grief with great depth and intentionality.

In the Distance by Hernan Diaz
Genre: Literary Fiction
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Fee’s thoughts: Painfully beautiful writing from Hernan Diaz in this Western adjacent tale of one man’s unquenchable determination in the face of seemingly endless adversity as his American Dream turns into a nightmare. We follow Håkan Söderström’s ill fated voyage from Sweden to the US during the ruthless and often brutal California goldrush era, and travel beside him as he crosses the American frontier in search of his brother.

“He crossed deserts and forded rivers, climbed mountains and traversed plains. He ate fish and prairie dogs, slept on moss and sand, skinned caribou and iguanas. His face became wrinkled by many summers and furrowed by many winters. His hands, burned and frostbitten year after year, were crossed and recrossed with lines and creases. Once, he saw the ocean, but turned around immediately, thinking there would be settlements along the coastline. Whenever he stopped, it was at an inhospitable location – never in a meadow, by a water source, or in a plentiful spot – barely pitching camp and seldom making fires. It was dead quiet in his mind. He rarely thought of anything that was not at hand. Years vanished under a weightless present.“

I laughed, I cried, I cried some more. Håkan and Pingo will stay with me for a long time.

Recommended for lovers of John Muir, or fans of Téa Obreht’s Inland.