caitri | A Book a Day: The Changeling

Every day I'm sharing an image of a book I like. The Changeling is maybe the best book of the 2010s in my not-that-humble opinion. (It is definitely one of the best books ever written about the rare book trade, certainly the best of fictional portrayals.) It is very much a modern fairy tale--I phrase that gets overused--and then it bends that backwards and forwards and around until it's not meta, and yet not-not either. There's an amazing bit in the final third where the hero sort of recognizes that he's on something of a heroic quest....but he's also a black man in New York City, and in order save someone he needs to get to a specific neighborhood--and he is immediately stymied by police, who view his very existence as inherently threatening and outsiderey. It's a blistering moment, one of many, and LaValle tackles so much of our contemporary culture's everyday ugliness with so much believable and gorgeous grace. Get your paws on it if you haven't already.