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Available
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Publication
Picador (2021), Edition: Main Market, 240 pages
Description
"Edie is stumbling her way through her twenties--sharing a subpar apartment in Bushwick, clocking in and out of her admin job, making a series of inappropriate sexual choices. She is also haltingly, fitfully giving heat and air to the art that simmers inside her. And then she meets Eric, a digital archivist with a family in New Jersey, including an autopsist wife who has agreed to an open marriage--with rules. As if navigating the constantly shifting landscapes of contemporary sexual manners and racial politics weren't hard enough, Edie finds herself unemployed and invited into Eric's home--though not by Eric. She becomes a hesitant ally to his wife and a de facto role model to his adopted daughter. Edie may be the only Black woman young Akila knows. Luster is a portrait of a young woman trying to make sense of her life--her hunger, her anger--in a tumultuous era. It is also a description of how hard it is to believe in your own talent, and the unexpected influences that bring us into ourselves along the way."--Provided by publisher.… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member boredgames
Starts off strong but...what really happened? I wasn't ever convinced by Rebecca. And the main character Edie was so clearly a cipher for Leilani to expound on whatever she wanted, gaming culture, pointless expo set pieces, "Daddy issues", the kind of mealy-mouthed, twisted self flagellation
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Moshfegh and Gaitskill have trodden before. Some interesting observations on being a minority and minority competition, but I don't buy the hype.....there was such a self-satisfaction to the writing, whilst smart, but it seemed so smug with itself and the characters never fully came alive for me. Show Less
LibraryThing member Narshkite
Wavering between a 4 and 5. The book is imperfect, but it moved and surprised me in a way few books do, It is delightfully complicated in the ways humans are complicated. This is messy stuff. Messy family drama, messy coming of age, messy realities of living as a black woman with student loans and
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no money (and no money-generating ambition) and no mother (or other support), messy middle aged woman whose personal life is not what she planned and not what she wants but still something she needs to protect. Most messy of all is the necessity and ugliness of and need for connection. This is also freaking hilarious much of the time and deeply sad much of the time, and sometimes both simultaneously. I wanted a little more fleshing out of Rebecca and Akilah, but there is so much here. As I was reading I said this was funny and tragic, poetic and profane, cruel and humane and that is still about right. Show Less
LibraryThing member RidgewayGirl
"You're kind of aloof," he says, and all the kids underneath my trench coat rejoice. Aloof is a casual lean, a choice. It is not a girl in Bushwick, licking clean a can of tuna.
"I'm an open book," I say, thinking of all the men who have found it illegible. I made mistakes with these men. I dove for
Edie is living in a shared roach-infested apartment, subsisting on ramen, when she begins an on-line flirtation with a married man that quickly becomes serious. Their actual first encounter is less intense. He's quite a bit older than her and tells her that his wife will have to approve their relationship. Edie also works at a publishing company, earning far too little money, dealing with routine racism from her nearly entirely white co-workers and engaging in risky behavior at work. When a series of events leaves Edie without a job or a home, she is taken in by her lover's wife, an awkward situation that no one seems willing to talk openly about.
This novel hits a lot of issues very directly. Edie is a disaster, but so is every single person she interacts with, often leaving her scrambling to be the adult in a situation. She's reckless but also compassionate and just trying to figure out where she belongs. At the heart of this over-packed novel is the story of a tentative friendship between women, one destined to be difficult and stilted by who Rebecca and Edie are, another between Edie and Rebecca's adopted daughter Akila, a girl often more self-assured than Edie, but still uncomfortable in her own life.
There's so much going on in this short novel that it's hard to find something to focus on. Events are recounted, but as more events pile on, the earlier ones become hidden. It had the effect of diluting the power of the story that Leilani is telling. There are some great sentences in Luster, but more often the writing gets in the way of the story. That said, this is a fine debut to what should be a notable body of work.
"I'm an open book," I say, thinking of all the men who have found it illegible. I made mistakes with these men. I dove for
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their legs as they tried to leave my house. I chased them down the hall with a bottle of Listerine, saying, I can be a beach read, I can get rid of all these clauses, please, I'll just revise.Edie is living in a shared roach-infested apartment, subsisting on ramen, when she begins an on-line flirtation with a married man that quickly becomes serious. Their actual first encounter is less intense. He's quite a bit older than her and tells her that his wife will have to approve their relationship. Edie also works at a publishing company, earning far too little money, dealing with routine racism from her nearly entirely white co-workers and engaging in risky behavior at work. When a series of events leaves Edie without a job or a home, she is taken in by her lover's wife, an awkward situation that no one seems willing to talk openly about.
This novel hits a lot of issues very directly. Edie is a disaster, but so is every single person she interacts with, often leaving her scrambling to be the adult in a situation. She's reckless but also compassionate and just trying to figure out where she belongs. At the heart of this over-packed novel is the story of a tentative friendship between women, one destined to be difficult and stilted by who Rebecca and Edie are, another between Edie and Rebecca's adopted daughter Akila, a girl often more self-assured than Edie, but still uncomfortable in her own life.
There's so much going on in this short novel that it's hard to find something to focus on. Events are recounted, but as more events pile on, the earlier ones become hidden. It had the effect of diluting the power of the story that Leilani is telling. There are some great sentences in Luster, but more often the writing gets in the way of the story. That said, this is a fine debut to what should be a notable body of work.
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LibraryThing member booklove2
I won't divulge too many details other than the beginning -- the main character falls into an open marriage with an older man. Alone, this book would not interest me, but there are so many specific details here that this book couldn't be more vivid. The writing is real, brutal, fierce, honest,
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sometimes funny in all its sadness. I love all the geekiness thrown in. This is one of those novels -- you're not sure how much is the author or how much is the main character. But then you have so much empathy for this character you can't help but have so much empathy for the writer. Is it possible a writer can wring so much empathy from a reader that the reader must insist on the book being very very good? Is the trick in the writing here to want to fiercely protect this character and this book?When is pulling on the heart strings a bit TOO much? Am I getting too close to characters during these Covid months? This girl has been through a lot, but those difficult traumatic things seem to be on the backburner and the main focus is on the day to day survival of a young black woman in NYC. She becomes a delivery bike courier for an app, she applies to work at a clown college... It's a bit like Ling Ma's lonely 'Severance' but without that speculative element. But also like so many other books about women trying to make it through the day, just struggling on: 'All the Birds, Singing' by Evie Wyld, 'A Dictionary of Animal Languages' by Heidi Sopinka, 'Goodbye, Vitamin' by Rachel Khong, 'Writers & Lovers' by Lily King, 'Say Say Say' by Lila Savage, 'A Line Made By Walking' by Sara Baume and probably so many others. Many of these women are involved in the arts. This is a solid stack of lovely books -- I wish all of the characters in these books were friends so they'd all be less lonely. Most of these books are kind of kitchen sink books, where so many things are thrown into the narrative, but that is why I love them. You could call them, as a genre 'solitude and the kitchen sink'. But 'Luster' also has that sparkle of something special, so much detail, so much heart. I can see the thought that went into writing this. I'm a fan of Raven Leilani. Show Less
LibraryThing member jphamilton
The character of Edie, a woman in her twenties is at the center of this book, a book that many reviewers and readers are very excited about. She doesn’t have a great job or place to live, and her sex life is “scattered” to say the least. Her sexual partners are plentiful, around briefly, and
Then she becomes involved with Eric, a white man with a wife, Rebecca, and a young daughter named Akila. These characters are around for much of the book, as this sexual relationship with Eric lasts much longer than all her others, and the wife and the daughter both come to know her. For a curious Akila, Edie may be the only black woman she even knows.
For Edie, these are all unique relationships, as she becomes a part of their open marriage. Rebecca and Edie have a unexpected relationship, and it always drew my attention. Edie has experienced some physical and emotional abuse before, and this continues with Eric, as this young black woman is trying to figure out who she is, and what she wants in life.
Edie’s search for who she is, is the core of this fascinating book. There’s a real edge to the writing, one that sizzles with a sexuality, toys with a clever humor, and it offered a very interesting look into how expectations and needs shape a person’s life.
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then many times become a topic of office gossip and conversation. Some of these choices turn out to have real consequences in her life. Edie is still trying to figure out the way this world works in regards to race, work politics, and sexual relations. Then she becomes involved with Eric, a white man with a wife, Rebecca, and a young daughter named Akila. These characters are around for much of the book, as this sexual relationship with Eric lasts much longer than all her others, and the wife and the daughter both come to know her. For a curious Akila, Edie may be the only black woman she even knows.
For Edie, these are all unique relationships, as she becomes a part of their open marriage. Rebecca and Edie have a unexpected relationship, and it always drew my attention. Edie has experienced some physical and emotional abuse before, and this continues with Eric, as this young black woman is trying to figure out who she is, and what she wants in life.
Edie’s search for who she is, is the core of this fascinating book. There’s a real edge to the writing, one that sizzles with a sexuality, toys with a clever humor, and it offered a very interesting look into how expectations and needs shape a person’s life.
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LibraryThing member viviennestrauss
From the very first page, I could NOT put this book down. Leilani's writing is brutal but beautiful - this is the kind of writing that I live for!
LibraryThing member mcelhra
I picked this book up because I heard that transracial adoption played a part in the plot and as a transracial adoptive parent, this intrigued me. Well, it does play a part but that is the only thing in it even remotely similar to my life!
Edie is a twenty-something Black woman living a bleak life
Edie, Eric and Rebecca are all deeply flawed to say the least. Their lives are mostly joyless. However, Edie narrates her life with the darkest humor that keeps this book from being hopelessly depressing. For instance:
“There are times I interact with kids and recall my abortion fondly, moments like this when I cross paths with a child who is clearly a drag.”
Or:
“The waitress tells us the specials in such a way that we know our sole responsibility as patrons in her section is to just go right ahead and f*ck ourselves.”
I loved this book’s humor and brutal honesty. It’s hard to believe that it’s Raven Leilani’s first novel. Highly recommended.
Edie is a twenty-something Black woman living a bleak life
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full of meaningless, unfulfilling sexual encounters. Most of them have been with men at the publishing company where she works for the children’s imprint. Now she is dating Eric, a forty-something married white guy she met online. He and his wife have recently agreed to open their marriage and Edie is the first woman he’s dated since that decision. Due to unfortunate and slightly bizarre circumstances, Eric’s wife Rebecca ends up inviting Edie to move in, even though she doesn’t exactly like Edie. Eric and his wife (who is also white) have an adopted tween Black daughter named Akila. Edie somewhat unwillingly becomes a mentor to her because Akila has no other Black people in her life.Edie, Eric and Rebecca are all deeply flawed to say the least. Their lives are mostly joyless. However, Edie narrates her life with the darkest humor that keeps this book from being hopelessly depressing. For instance:
“There are times I interact with kids and recall my abortion fondly, moments like this when I cross paths with a child who is clearly a drag.”
Or:
“The waitress tells us the specials in such a way that we know our sole responsibility as patrons in her section is to just go right ahead and f*ck ourselves.”
I loved this book’s humor and brutal honesty. It’s hard to believe that it’s Raven Leilani’s first novel. Highly recommended.
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LibraryThing member krau0098
Series Info/Source: This is a stand alone book that I borrowed from the library.
Story (4/5): This is an interesting look into an aimless 20 something black woman's life. We see a lot of her daily trials and tribulations and the relationship she forms with a family (who she originally meets by
Characters (4/5): Edie seems ambivalent about everything or maybe just beat down. In fact all of the characters (even the young girl Akila) have a very tired and depressed feeling to them. As a result of this ambivalence it's hard to engage with her or anyone else in the story...they are held at a distance and feel so alien. I did find the way that Edie just kind of flows from one situation to the next intriguing. In fact all of these characters are intriguing portraits of rather unhappy people. I didn’t really like them or enjoy reading about them, but they were fascinating and made me wonder how many people live this way.
Setting (4/5): This is set in New York City but the setting could really be any really big city around the world. People struggle to make a living and apartments are small and dirty. It was a good setting for this story and contrasts nicely with Eric’s (the man Edie is dating) sprawling suburban home.
Writing Style (4/5): This was more engaging than I expected and I enjoyed the writing style, which is both beautifully descriptive and strangely ambivalent. Maybe the weird unfinished and unsatisfying feeling the story has is supposed to reflect the main character's own dis-satisfaction with her life; either way it left me feeling empty and wanting to move onto something else. However, I did read it quickly and it kept me engaged up until the end. The writing style was visceral and unique, it just felt unfinished.
My Summary (4/5): Overall while this is not something I would re-read I am glad I read it once. The writing style is artistically interesting and the characters are intriguing in how ambivalent ,yet impulsive they are about their lives. This definitely isn’t a “feel good” read, but it’s an interesting look into these characters' decisions (and lack of decisions) and lives.
Story (4/5): This is an interesting look into an aimless 20 something black woman's life. We see a lot of her daily trials and tribulations and the relationship she forms with a family (who she originally meets by
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dating the husband/father in an open marriage sort of arrangement). The careless way Edie treats her body and the careless way she is treated by law enforcement is impactful. However, ultimately the story felt weirdly unsatisfying, like I am not sure what the point was. Even though I read this quickly and pretty much devoured it...I will forget it quickly too. Characters (4/5): Edie seems ambivalent about everything or maybe just beat down. In fact all of the characters (even the young girl Akila) have a very tired and depressed feeling to them. As a result of this ambivalence it's hard to engage with her or anyone else in the story...they are held at a distance and feel so alien. I did find the way that Edie just kind of flows from one situation to the next intriguing. In fact all of these characters are intriguing portraits of rather unhappy people. I didn’t really like them or enjoy reading about them, but they were fascinating and made me wonder how many people live this way.
Setting (4/5): This is set in New York City but the setting could really be any really big city around the world. People struggle to make a living and apartments are small and dirty. It was a good setting for this story and contrasts nicely with Eric’s (the man Edie is dating) sprawling suburban home.
Writing Style (4/5): This was more engaging than I expected and I enjoyed the writing style, which is both beautifully descriptive and strangely ambivalent. Maybe the weird unfinished and unsatisfying feeling the story has is supposed to reflect the main character's own dis-satisfaction with her life; either way it left me feeling empty and wanting to move onto something else. However, I did read it quickly and it kept me engaged up until the end. The writing style was visceral and unique, it just felt unfinished.
My Summary (4/5): Overall while this is not something I would re-read I am glad I read it once. The writing style is artistically interesting and the characters are intriguing in how ambivalent ,yet impulsive they are about their lives. This definitely isn’t a “feel good” read, but it’s an interesting look into these characters' decisions (and lack of decisions) and lives.
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LibraryThing member RandyMetcalfe
Edie is 23 and the way her life is going it’s anyone’s guess as to whether she’ll see 30. She has burned most of her bridges at the publishing house where she has a position just one rung up the ladder. But that seems at the very least consistent given the disorder of her teenage years. Her
Despite her meagre prospects, there is something compelling about Edie. She is excruciatingly self-aware but seemingly helpless in putting her life in order. Perhaps only when she is painting does she, sometimes, achieve a kind of peace. But she isn’t as good as she could be and she’s not even sure she sees herself as an artist anymore. Events, however, have a way of imposing themselves, forcing a life in a certain direction regardless of intent. Which is a roundabout way of saying that Edie ends up in New Jersey living with Eric, his wife Rebecca, and their adopted black pre-teen daughter, Akila. You might be guessing there is a bumpy ride ahead.
This is visceral writing. Raven Leilani presents a protagonist who is, in many senses, extreme. Yet she becomes fully believable even though I can’t claim to understand her. There is always too much of her for me to get my head around. And the other characters — Eric, Rebecca, and Akali — are so thinly sketched that they rarely take on three dimensions, instead seeming to loom just out of focus in mist, until they are exploited, suddenly, for maximum impact. You will find yourself racing through the novel even as you wish you could slow down and savour the obvious skill and care on display in the crafting of Edie’s precarious life.
Certainly recommended.
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mother is some years dead, and she found out on Facebook that her father died six months earlier. About the only thing that excites her about life is this new online relationship she has with Eric, a man who is twice her age and white. But the likelihood that will not end in tears is beyond slim.Despite her meagre prospects, there is something compelling about Edie. She is excruciatingly self-aware but seemingly helpless in putting her life in order. Perhaps only when she is painting does she, sometimes, achieve a kind of peace. But she isn’t as good as she could be and she’s not even sure she sees herself as an artist anymore. Events, however, have a way of imposing themselves, forcing a life in a certain direction regardless of intent. Which is a roundabout way of saying that Edie ends up in New Jersey living with Eric, his wife Rebecca, and their adopted black pre-teen daughter, Akila. You might be guessing there is a bumpy ride ahead.
This is visceral writing. Raven Leilani presents a protagonist who is, in many senses, extreme. Yet she becomes fully believable even though I can’t claim to understand her. There is always too much of her for me to get my head around. And the other characters — Eric, Rebecca, and Akali — are so thinly sketched that they rarely take on three dimensions, instead seeming to loom just out of focus in mist, until they are exploited, suddenly, for maximum impact. You will find yourself racing through the novel even as you wish you could slow down and savour the obvious skill and care on display in the crafting of Edie’s precarious life.
Certainly recommended.
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LibraryThing member bostonbibliophile
luminous coming of age about lots of things but for me what resonated was edie's growth as an artist, the themes of creation and creating, what all these things mean and how they play out. i think the thinness of the supporting characters was intentional and has to do with edie's solipcism. edie is
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disaffected and alienated and the style very much reflects that. once it started gathering momentum i found it hard to put down. Show Less
LibraryThing member kayanelson
Interesting book. I heard the author speak on So Many Damn Books and was intrigued. The black perspective of this book was educational for me. It was subtle except near the end when there was a police encounter. We are given a view of Edie’s mind and in the end she really is the only person we
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understand. Rebecca, Eric and Akilo remain a bit of a mystery for me. An unlikely plot but good writing. Show Less
LibraryThing member brangwinn
There’s been so many positive reviews about this book, I’ve spent several days pondering why I didn’t like it as well as I had assumed I would. I knew there was going to be a book with plenty of sex in it. I knew it was about a black woman who had an affair with a married white man and that
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the wife would invite the girlfriend to move in with them. I think that there are two things that most troubled me about this book. Everyone’s life seemed so joyless and that I could identify with no one. The most joyous aspect of this book was raven Lelaini’s ability to write equals that of an artist with paint, she can paint words that in a short time tell a story about a girl who cannot find herself. Show Less
LibraryThing member caimanjosh
I struggled with this one. While the author's writing style is excellent, I just didn't understand any of the characters. They seemed to do strange, random things and never provided much indication of why they did them. The plot didn't seem to go anywhere, either. (I literally said, "Wait, that's
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the end?" when I reached the last page.) If you're fine with books with meandering plots and unclear meanings and motivations, you might enjoy this book, which does provide some interesting insights into certain aspects of the human condition. But apparently it wasn't for me. Show Less
LibraryThing member miss.mesmerized
Edie, a 23-year-old artist, is somehow stumbling through her life. She does not have a stable partnership and the men she encounters are certainly not the ones to plan a future together, well she does not even know if that is what she wants. When she meets Eric, again, this does not seem to go
Raven Leilani’s novel “Luster” has been named among the most anticipated novels of 2020, thus, I was quite curious to read it. The constellation of inviting the young mistress of one’s husband to live in the same house seemed quite promising for an interesting battle between two women. However, I struggled a bit with it, maybe this is due to the fact that the author quickly moves away from the central conflict and the protagonist remains a bit too bland for my liking.
When moving to the Walker family’s house, Eric is away on a business trip. Instead of having two grown-up women who have to negotiate their respective place in the household, Edie turns into another kid who is bossed around by Rebecca and forced into the role of a nanny and tutor for Akila, Rebecca and Eric’s daughter. She herself does not appear to actually dislike this arrangement and easily gives in to it. Rebecca, on the other hand, is not the self-confident and successful women, her behaviour towards Edie is quite harsh but only because she is weak and in this way wants to secure her place.
There are some minor aspects which I found quite interesting but which did not really blend into the story such as Akila and the fact that she is black and adopted. She and Edie become the victim of police brutality – a brief scene which is not pursued on a psychological, societal or political level and of which, there, the function remains unclear to me. This happens at several points where the characters find themselves in a crucial emotional situation which is not elaborated and makes them all appear a bit inanimate, like actors on a stage who perform a role in which they feel awkward and which they cannot really identify with.
Edie is neither a representative of a lost generation who does not know what to expect from a highly uncertain future, nor is she a special individual who struggles after some major life event. She also does not really develop throughout the novel which, all in all, makes her shallow and admittedly quite uninteresting. Maybe the plot might have been much more appealing from Rebecca’s or Akila’s point of view.
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beyond sex since he is twice her age, married and without the least intention of leaving his wife and daughter. When Edie finds herself suddenly unemployed without money or place to stay, something quite extraordinary happens: Eric’s wife invites her to live with them. However, it is clear who sets the rules: Rebecca.Raven Leilani’s novel “Luster” has been named among the most anticipated novels of 2020, thus, I was quite curious to read it. The constellation of inviting the young mistress of one’s husband to live in the same house seemed quite promising for an interesting battle between two women. However, I struggled a bit with it, maybe this is due to the fact that the author quickly moves away from the central conflict and the protagonist remains a bit too bland for my liking.
When moving to the Walker family’s house, Eric is away on a business trip. Instead of having two grown-up women who have to negotiate their respective place in the household, Edie turns into another kid who is bossed around by Rebecca and forced into the role of a nanny and tutor for Akila, Rebecca and Eric’s daughter. She herself does not appear to actually dislike this arrangement and easily gives in to it. Rebecca, on the other hand, is not the self-confident and successful women, her behaviour towards Edie is quite harsh but only because she is weak and in this way wants to secure her place.
There are some minor aspects which I found quite interesting but which did not really blend into the story such as Akila and the fact that she is black and adopted. She and Edie become the victim of police brutality – a brief scene which is not pursued on a psychological, societal or political level and of which, there, the function remains unclear to me. This happens at several points where the characters find themselves in a crucial emotional situation which is not elaborated and makes them all appear a bit inanimate, like actors on a stage who perform a role in which they feel awkward and which they cannot really identify with.
Edie is neither a representative of a lost generation who does not know what to expect from a highly uncertain future, nor is she a special individual who struggles after some major life event. She also does not really develop throughout the novel which, all in all, makes her shallow and admittedly quite uninteresting. Maybe the plot might have been much more appealing from Rebecca’s or Akila’s point of view.
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LibraryThing member nivramkoorb
This book is an example of a very hyped debut that I tried but just didn't totally like it. However, that being said, the author is very creative and is both funny, insightful, and worthwhile. It was mainly for her writing skill and fun prose that I gave this a 3 star rating. However, the story of
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a 23 year old black woman, Edie, who is very destructive and knows it. We are in her here head throughout the book and as a reader I had trouble understanding her behavior. She is involved with a 46 year old white digital archivist(Eric) who has an open marriage with Rebecca who is a doctor dealing with autopsies. There is so much about their relationships(Edie moves in with them) that I couldn't accept as real, though I am sure these situations probably do exits. Maybe it is generational. I would like to see what her next book is like but it could be that this young single demographic and their stories are not for me. Show Less
LibraryThing member Dreesie
Every generation of 20-somethings thinks their situation is somehow unique. As they come to grips with being adults, how working can be a real drag, how it's harder for them. This book is the Gen Z version--Edie is among the oldest of Gen Z.
Edie lives in a crappy apartment, works a boring
As she looks for a new job via online postings, she struggles to find where she fits. As a black woman, she is often not taken seriously (but really--she is not serious about work) in the interview process. She gets to know a black tween who has been adopted by a white family, and Edie finally finds a bit of a purpose--to teach this girl about life as a black woman. About her hair, how to behave around cops, how to exist in the world. But Akila teaches Edie things too.
Maybe I would have liked this book a lot more if I were a current 20-something. I did love Edie's biting humor and sarcasm. She is witty and bright, smart and funny.
Edie lives in a crappy apartment, works a boring
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publishing job, and wants to paint. She makes bad decisions day in and day out--mostly involving 1) men, but also her involving her 2) career, her 3) art, her 4) friends. She loses her job due to 1 and 2, loses her apartment, and ends up in an unusual living situation. Her boyfriend is older and married and presents her with his wife's rules for their relationship. She breaks them.As she looks for a new job via online postings, she struggles to find where she fits. As a black woman, she is often not taken seriously (but really--she is not serious about work) in the interview process. She gets to know a black tween who has been adopted by a white family, and Edie finally finds a bit of a purpose--to teach this girl about life as a black woman. About her hair, how to behave around cops, how to exist in the world. But Akila teaches Edie things too.
Maybe I would have liked this book a lot more if I were a current 20-something. I did love Edie's biting humor and sarcasm. She is witty and bright, smart and funny.
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LibraryThing member technodiabla
Luster is a novel about so many things and yet about nothing specific at all. A young black woman, largely a loser, hooks up with an older white man and eventually ends up living with his family in a leafy suburb. I read it mostly as being the woman, lost to herself, finding her muses in the most
The fist half was entirely irritating to me. Largely because I wanted to slap Edie for being such a stupid loser. Later, her family backstory softened me a bit. But the issue is that the narrative voice is Edie, but somehow, a more mature, omniscient, and articulate Edie. An Edie that shouldn't be the stupid loser who drinks vodka at work and can't remember to pay her bills. By the end of the novel she has tranformed into the narrator, though in retrospect that is entirely unbelievable.
I appreciate that this is a very gritty, raw novel that goes places many will not. It's daring and I suspect memorable.
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unlikely of places. It's also about sex, race, and isolation. The fist half was entirely irritating to me. Largely because I wanted to slap Edie for being such a stupid loser. Later, her family backstory softened me a bit. But the issue is that the narrative voice is Edie, but somehow, a more mature, omniscient, and articulate Edie. An Edie that shouldn't be the stupid loser who drinks vodka at work and can't remember to pay her bills. By the end of the novel she has tranformed into the narrator, though in retrospect that is entirely unbelievable.
I appreciate that this is a very gritty, raw novel that goes places many will not. It's daring and I suspect memorable.
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LibraryThing member akblanchard
Given the premise and the title, I thought that Luster would be a sexy book, but it isn't. Instead, it is a literary examination of the triangle that develops among a black would-be artist, her white lover, and his white wife. When the artist loses her day job, she ends up living with the
Its Edie the artist's witty narrative voice that makes this otherwise solemn book worth reading.
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archivist's family, which also includes a black foster child. Some relationships form, and others die out.Its Edie the artist's witty narrative voice that makes this otherwise solemn book worth reading.
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LibraryThing member icolford
Raven Leilani’s caustically witty novel, Luster, is the story of 23-year-old Edie, a chronically broke black woman leading an edgy, messy, sexually and emotionally chaotic existence in contemporary New York City. Edie, trained as an artist, works as an editor in the children’s book division of
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a publishing house. When we meet her, she is involved in an online flirtation with Eric, a white archivist twice her age. For their first date he takes her to an amusement park. They begin meeting regularly, but it’s weeks before they have sex. And it turns out that Eric’s wife knows about the affair. Eric informs Edie that it’s fine with Rebecca as long as they abide by Rebecca’s rules (one of which is that the rules can change without warning). The oddness of everything about her relationship with Eric occupies Edie’s thoughts but, as we soon realize is her habit, she just shrugs and goes along with it. When Edie is fired from her job (for being “sexually inappropriate”), she finds work with a delivery app, but the money is insufficient to live on and she is briefly homeless. When Eric stops contacting her and doesn’t respond to her messages, Edie turns up at his suburban home—impulsively she walks in, and there is Rebecca. Later, at Rebecca’s invitation (while Eric is out of town), she moves in with the couple and their adopted pre-teen daughter, Akila, who is black. Edie suspects Rebecca of wanting to use her “blackness” as an emotional and cultural salve for her daughter, expecting Edie to understand and cater to Akila’s needs in ways that her adoptive parents are unable to, an assumption that Edie finds preposterous, amusing and vaguely insulting. And still, she forms a bond with the girl that becomes meaningful, tender and mutually supportive. Leilani’s novel is intensely physical—Edie, uncomfortable in her own skin, is always aware of her body as a sexual object and the effect it has on men and other women. Yet, throughout the book she is consumed by ambivalence toward her body, which, as circumstances evolve, she regards variously as an advantage, an inconvenience and a burden. The novel is largely concerned with black Edie navigating a path through a white person’s world, trying “to take up as little space as possible,” but attracting unwanted attention nonetheless. In the end, she seems to find solace and redemption in her art, the power and precision of which enable her to capture, define and control an off-kilter universe rife with inequities that can be confusing, hostile and cruel. Luster fascinates for a number of reasons: the startling and sometimes unfathomable behaviour of its characters, its courageous dissection of racial and sexual politics, its meandering, zig-zagging plot that generates, if not suspense exactly, then a weird sort of tension or energy not completely unrelated to it. Most captivating though is Raven Leilani’s prose, which is minutely observant, engagingly sardonic, and lively with detail and cultural references that bring Edie’s shifting states of mind vividly, sometimes painfully, into focus. In a sense, Luster’s flaws are also its strengths, because the book requires the reader to abandon any preconceptions and give him/herself over to it completely. Some readers won’t want to do this, but those who do will find the experience invigorating, illuminating and deeply rewarding. Show Less
LibraryThing member gypsysmom
Did Not Finish. I know this book has its fans. Maybe I'm just too old to appreciate a book that is all about sex and violence involving people that have no redeeming value. Just couldn't continue listening to it!
LibraryThing member banjo123
In this book, a troubled African American woman in her 20's, struggles with work and relationships after a troubled childhood. She is an artist and thinks that she is probably not good enough. She ends up in a relationship with an older, white, married man; and ends up moving in with him, his wife,
The writing is fine, pretty literary. I could never understand what the protagonist saw in the older white man; and spent most of the book wanting to send her to therapy.
So definitely not my favorite book! I'd probably compare to Sally Rooney, whose books I also dislike.
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and their adopted African American daughter. The writing is fine, pretty literary. I could never understand what the protagonist saw in the older white man; and spent most of the book wanting to send her to therapy.
So definitely not my favorite book! I'd probably compare to Sally Rooney, whose books I also dislike.
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LibraryThing member BibliophageOnCoffee
Propulsive, but definitely not a book for the prudish.
LibraryThing member tbrown3131949
I hated this book. In our time of coronavirus and hyper-partisan politics it came at me viciously using long sentences steeped in the cultural vernacular of a person fifty years younger than I, filled with references I didn’t understand, and the righteous anger of a young black woman struggling
I loved this book. The driving force of Edie’s narration, her unique personality, viewpoint and language, slowly won me over, although it took time. By the last quarter of the book I was mesmerized by her inability to overcome her own choices while persevering as if she could. I was overcome with a sense of pre-ordained doom. I hoped for an epiphany. I savored every word, researched every confusing cultural reference. Because of the way Leilani builds this story and Edie’s character, the ending was satisfying for me, although I can’t tell you why.
Edie, the mid-twenties protagonist narrates in the first person, sometimes with a nearly stream-of-consciousness style that is immediate but difficult for me because it is steeped in the culture of her age group–forty-five years distant from mine. The challenges of Edie’s life, the way she lives it, and the cultural milieu she lives it in are not mine–she is an artist, I was an engineer; she is a passionate, young black woman, I am an older white man; I am privileged in many subtle ways, she is not. She is automatically suspect–by the police, by her employers, by the people she meets–I am automatically trusted.
Those differences are the theme, for me. Leilani had to bludgeon me with it and she almost knocked me out, but I withstood her blows and was given a small window into this life I will never know. I felt viscerally what it was like to be Edie, living with and acknowledging her faults and reveling in her fortitude and her insight.
I read a lot science fiction partly to feel the presence of the other and experience worlds I will never know. Raven Leilani, in Luster has given me the best of that in the familiar setting of my own world, but with a perspective alien to me–that of a young, black woman.
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to find her place personally and professionally in a society that judges her based on her blackness and her gender and little else. I loved this book. The driving force of Edie’s narration, her unique personality, viewpoint and language, slowly won me over, although it took time. By the last quarter of the book I was mesmerized by her inability to overcome her own choices while persevering as if she could. I was overcome with a sense of pre-ordained doom. I hoped for an epiphany. I savored every word, researched every confusing cultural reference. Because of the way Leilani builds this story and Edie’s character, the ending was satisfying for me, although I can’t tell you why.
Edie, the mid-twenties protagonist narrates in the first person, sometimes with a nearly stream-of-consciousness style that is immediate but difficult for me because it is steeped in the culture of her age group–forty-five years distant from mine. The challenges of Edie’s life, the way she lives it, and the cultural milieu she lives it in are not mine–she is an artist, I was an engineer; she is a passionate, young black woman, I am an older white man; I am privileged in many subtle ways, she is not. She is automatically suspect–by the police, by her employers, by the people she meets–I am automatically trusted.
Those differences are the theme, for me. Leilani had to bludgeon me with it and she almost knocked me out, but I withstood her blows and was given a small window into this life I will never know. I felt viscerally what it was like to be Edie, living with and acknowledging her faults and reveling in her fortitude and her insight.
I read a lot science fiction partly to feel the presence of the other and experience worlds I will never know. Raven Leilani, in Luster has given me the best of that in the familiar setting of my own world, but with a perspective alien to me–that of a young, black woman.
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LibraryThing member alexrichman
Starting to feel like I'm reading the same book on a regular basis. The same dry, wry narrator; same doomed relationship with an older man; just enough flickers of quality to earn the right praise from the right names. Had I read them in a different order I might have loved Luster more... but I
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didn't. Show Less
LibraryThing member decaturmamaof2
A really interesting but challenging read. This is one Imma have to sit with for a while, to digest. Disturbing and compelling, raw and insightful. Recommended if you're open to something more difficult.
Awards
Women's Prize for Fiction (Longlist — 2021)
Kirkus Prize (Finalist — Fiction — 2020)
National Book Critics Circle Award (Winner — 2020)
The Morning News Tournament of Books (Short List — 2021)
British Book Award (Shortlist — 2022)
Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction and Nonfiction (Longlist — Fiction — 2021)
Center for Fiction First Novel Prize (Winner — 2020)
VCU Cabell First Novelist Award (Winner — 2021)
Dylan Thomas Prize (Winner — 2021)
Brooklyn Public Library Book Prize (Longlist — Fiction and Poetry — 2021)
BookTube Prize (Octofinalist — Fiction — 2021)
PEN/Jean Stein Book Award (Longlist — 2021)
5 Under 35 Award (2020)
Clark Fiction Prize (2021)
NPR: Books We Love (2020)
Boston Globe Best Book (2020)
The New York Times Notable Books of the Year (Fiction — 2020)
Kirkus Reviews Best Book of the Year (Fiction — 2020)
Chicago Public Library Best of the Best: Adults (Selection — 2020)
New York Public Library Best Books: For Adults (Top Ten — 2020)
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
2020
Physical description
240 p.; 8.9 inches
ISBN
1529035988 / 9781529035988
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DDC/MDS
| 813.6 |