Oct 12, 2021
Build Your House Around My Body by Violet Kupersmith
Pretty sure this is the first book I’ve ever read where I got to the final scene and—WHILE I WAS READING THE LAST PAGE—thought…
“I’m gonna need to read this again.”
I haven’t loved a book this much, in this way, in a really long time. Weird Asian fiction is where I want to live forever.
The jacket description of the book, as well as the NYT Book Review, lays out the plot like this:
“Two young women go missing decades apart. Both are fearless, both are lost. And both will have their revenge.”
This is technically true, and I suppose I don’t have a better way to describe it… but the book is a sprawling, spooky, multi-generational saga that weaves together Vietnamese history & folklore to create a world that feels both intimate and completely unknowable at the same time.
Most of the story takes place in two main settings—modern-day Saigon, with its motorbikes and alleyways and stifling humidity, and a remote village / forest / haunted old rubber plantation inhabited by… well, it’s hard to explain.
I don’t want to describe too much more, because you will think I’m on drugs.
If you like Murakami novels, you’ll probably enjoy this as well. (And yes, I know Murakami is Japanese, not Vietnamese. The weirdness is what I’m referring to.)
About Sam
Samantha Pollack is a Copywriter & Creative Director who works with ethically minded, mission driven businesses who are actively trying to reshape our culture (and possibly tear down the patriarchy). She’s also the founder of The Highly Sensitive Business Owner, a 12-week online program that helps HSPs & neurodivergent business owners create healthier, more sustainable systems in their work.
Sam also writes about feminism, privilege, pop culture, entrepreneurship, the creative process, and whatever else is on her mind. She currently lives in Asheville, NC.
Emails for cult thought leaders.
(Personality included.)
Want to learn how to craft emails that inspire action and engagement WITHOUT the “tried and true” (cough: patriarchal) norms we’ve all been taught?
I’m doing it, and I can show you how to do it, too.
(But sometimes, I also like to write about the books I’m reading, or the creative process, or the entrepreneurial experience, or why I hate Steve Jobs, or how I met my BFF. I’ll send you emails like that, too.)
*Just kidding. It’s only an email list.
Books. Cats. Rants. Drawrings.
(and every couple months or so, an unexplained absence 🤷🏻)
