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Customer Review
Reviewed in the United States on March 12, 2020
What I want to say is that Black Widow is a heartbreaking work of staggering genius, however I'm not sure Dave Eggers would be willing to relinquish his title. But he should! Because that's a pretty great description of what Leslie Gray Streeter has offered up - though I'd also like to add hilarious in there somewhere, and maybe staggering isn't quite right. A heartbreaking and hilarious work of emotional genius - yeah, maybe that's better. And I'd like to predict that just as AHWOSG was the official introduction of a great contemporary American author, so too is Black Widow.
What Streeter accomplishes with her debut book is nothing short of profound. In telling the story of her incredible love and loss, adaptation and triumphant adoption, she goes diving into the wreck (Adrienne Rich-style) and shines a light on all of it. All of it! There are dark terrifying things, dark hilarious things, the absurd, the unknown, and the super-familiar. Luckily for the reader, Streeter's many years of experience as an entertainment columnist empower the crafting of her own narrative in a way that makes you feel like you're recieving it all next to her on a stool at the bar. It's not necessarily a comfortable stool, but once the story begins you're not going anywhere.
What Streeter accomplishes with her debut book is nothing short of profound. In telling the story of her incredible love and loss, adaptation and triumphant adoption, she goes diving into the wreck (Adrienne Rich-style) and shines a light on all of it. All of it! There are dark terrifying things, dark hilarious things, the absurd, the unknown, and the super-familiar. Luckily for the reader, Streeter's many years of experience as an entertainment columnist empower the crafting of her own narrative in a way that makes you feel like you're recieving it all next to her on a stool at the bar. It's not necessarily a comfortable stool, but once the story begins you're not going anywhere.
