The Book of Delights

The winner of the NBCC Award for Poetry offers up a spirited collection of short lyric essays, written daily over a year of political instability and fear, reminding us that we all need a little space to praise, to extol, to celebrate ordinary wonders. Ross Gay’s The Book of Delights is a genre-defying book of essays—some as short as a paragraph; some as long as five pages—on the small joys that occur daily as we go about our routines and that we often overlook in our busy lives. The time frame is one year in Gay’s life, from birthday to birthday. Gay is unabashedly delighted and not afraid to proclaim it, and yet he does not shy away from the truths of a black man traveling through the world who inevitably bumps up against racism, both implicit and overt. His is a meditation on delight that takes a clear-eyed view of the complexities, even the terrors, in our lives and faces them head on. Still, Gay is a student of delight and this year he chooses joy, despite the sorrow. Among Gay's other funny, poetic, philosophical delights: nicknames he gives his friends; arcane grammar rules he does not follow; pick-up games of basketball, the silent nod of acknowledgment when encountering the only other black person in a room. And more than another subject, Gay celebrates the beauty of the natural world—his garden, the flowers in the sidewalk, the birds, the bees, the mushrooms, the trees. This is not a book of how-to or inspiration, though it could be read that way. Fans of Roxanne Gay, Maggie Nelson, and Kiese Laymon will revel in Gay's voice, and his insights. The Book of Delights is about our connection to the world, to each other, and the rewards that come from a life closely observed. Gay’s insightful observations about the world serve as a powerful and necessary reminder that we can, and should, stake our space in our lives for delight.