NOT TO BE mistaken for Smith’s next essay collection, I take it, as it does not include “What Do We Want History to Do to Us?” nor the astonishing “Fascinated to Presume: In Defense of Fiction.” It’s a short book (just under 100 small [7” x 5”] pages) of short essays or sketches written in the earlier days of the pandemic.
Nonetheless, not to be missed. The great thing about Smith is that she sweeps us up to the intellectual heights for one beat, then huddles with us down in the trenches the next, as if she is the seminar room and out on the street at exactly the same time, as if Susan Sontag tried to do standup comedy and turned out to be really good at it.
The title essay is a gem—well, the whole book is a gem, worth including in toto whenever the next collection of essays occurs, but that collection definitely ought at least to include “Intimations,” which is mainly a list, with short, sometimes cryptic explanations, of people to whom Smith feels indebted and for whom she is grateful.
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