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New Statesman​

From Andrea Long Chu to Alayo Akinkugbe: new books reviewed in short

Among Friends by Hal Ebbott They say that if a friendship lasts seven years, it is likely to last a lifetime. How solid must a relationship be if it has lasted three decades? Amos and Emerson believe they share an unbreakable bond that saw them through their early twenties to their fifties: the wild days of college, first serious relationships and the births of their daughters. Not even their differing backgrounds could shake the foundations of their friendship. Or so they thought. Emerson is a lawyer, Amos a psychiatrist, and they both pass their time in the comfort of New York City wealth. But their picture-perfect life is about to face a challenge not many relationships can survive as Emerson's 52nd birthday celebrations begin. Hal Ebbott's roman d'analyse-style debut resurfaces old rivalries and resentments, be it class, marriage or power. All the characters repeatedly strive for something real and emotive as if acutely aware of their daily artifice – and they experience that reality with a shocking act of violence and betrayal. Ebbott grants the readers an intimate insight into thoughts vs actions that will leave you questioning your oldest friendships. Picador, 320pp, £18.99. Buy the book. By Zuzanna Lachendro Reframing Blackness: What's Black about 'History of Art'? by Alayo Akinkugbe Are museums white spaces? Does the education system limit our exposure to black artists? Does feminist art completely disregard intersectionality? These are questions posed and answered by Alayo Akinkugbe in Reframing Blackness. Conceived in the wake of the murder of George Floyd in 2020, this book is a study of the cultural shift that followed his death, and focuses on the erasure of blackness from art history. Akinkugbe moves the subject of blackness in art from the periphery to centre frame. Her criticism blends anecdote and academia, imploring the reader to consider the way we engage with art, skewed as it is by a Eurocentric perspective. Akinkugbe brings attention to art surrounding blackness that has been largely ignored while still acknowledging earlier criticism of these works. The book addresses the omissions in the history of art where blackness has been deliberately effaced. Ending with a call to action, Reframing Blackness is a manifesto to promote diversity and reform in the ways we think, educate and engage with art history. Merky Books, 176pp, £20. Buy the book. By Gabriella Berkeley-Agyepong Authority: Essays on Being Right by Andrea Long Chu Reviewing The Fraud in 2023, Andrea Long Chu wrote that Zadie Smith had lost her teeth. Chu's own Pulitzer Prize-winning work often tackles authors, TV shows, gender ideology, and even Andrew Lloyd Webber. To sum up Chu's style as 'takedowns' would be a disservice. Rather, it's a careful dismantling of revered cultural figures, the zeitgeist, and liberal society in general. Her writing is razor-sharp, personal, and vociferous in its proclamations, but it's also fun – it's got bite. Authority is a collection of essays written between 2018 and 2024, including the breakout 'On Liking Women', which interrogates Chu's gender transition. Republished seven years later, it reminds us of how barbed this topic has become. Many of the pieces have been published – a large number in New York magazine, where Chu is a book critic. But there are two newly penned essays that act as a battle cry for criticism and a rally against the neutrality of 'the far centre' – a place where Chu feels art and politics languish without conviction. But take all this with a pinch of salt, for, as Chu writes, 'The critic may be witty or insightful or engaging or well-read or widely admired or a true virtuoso – but what she will never be is decidedly right.' Hutchinson Heinemann, 288pp, £20. Buy the book. By Catharine Hughes The Place of Shells by Mai Ishizawa How can someone be dead and yet present? That is the question Mai Ishizawa's protagonist, and the reader, ask themselves. In the middle of the pandemic in Göttingen, Germany, a young Japanese woman studying for her PhD is confronted with her past. When a friend who died in the 2011 Tōhoku tsunami unexpectedly shows up at the train station, he triggers a series of unexpected events: the appearance of mysterious guests, eerie objects showing up in the nearby forest, and time's threads unravelling. But it's not just the protagonist who is forced to face her trauma. Flatmates, friends and neighbours turn to days gone by and begin to unpack the burdens they have been carrying, blending past and present. Ishizawa's poetic prose embraces art along with both Japanese and German culture, and her novel becomes a hypnotic dissection of memory, trauma and belonging that many will relate to. Though face masks make a regular appearance, the narrative comes across as timeless, perhaps because the story seems suspended in a timeline of its own. Did any of this happen? Or was it all just a manifestation of the grief many of us have experienced during times of global crisis? Sceptre, 160pp, £16.99. Buy the book. By Zuzanna Lachendro [See also: 150 years of the bizarre Hans Christian Andersen] Subscribe to The New Statesman today from only £8.99 per month Subscribe Related