Thin Places: Essays From In Between
Thin places, Jordan Kisner writes, are where “the barrier between the physical world and the spiritual world wears thin and becomes porous.” And many of her essays focus in on a search for meaning — whether it’s how people who deal with death every day continue on, or on her own relationship with Christianity, and later exploration of a new type of evangelicalism, popularized by “hip” pastors who try to save people at nightclubs. The topics of Thin Places: Essays From In Between range from Mormon mommy bloggers who become activists to forensic examiners to ways OCD is treated to Shaker furniture. And this breadth of topics sounds wild for just one essay collection, but they all naturally fit together. This is the magic of Jordan Kisner.
My favorite essay was probably the most personal: “Habitus,” which focused on a debutante ball in Laredo, a town southern Texas, where young girls dress up in colonial America ballgowns in honor of George Washington’s birthday. In diving into this custom — which started out as all white girls, but is now Mexican-American girls – she examines her own identity as a Mexican-American person and what it means to assimilate/pass in America.
This line from a review by Beth Kephart in Image stuck out to me: “Kisner’s chosen subject matter does not feel random, overworked, or borrowed. She does not write on trend, she is not self-consciously cool, she doesn’t care if you know how much she cares about things like Jesus raves, the underground life of trees, or the “‘elf-abnegating attention to detail’ of the Shakers. One senses that Kisner takes her time before she settles in: Is there a story here? you can almost hear her asking herself. And if there is, how do I make it my story, a story only I can tell?” And that’s exactly what I loved about this essay collection: Kisner was examining topics in ways I had not ever read, or even crossed my mind. Like, yes, I’ve read about Justin Bieber and the rise of Hillsong, but no, I’d never read about Jesus raves.
Rating: ★★★★
Get it here: https://amzn.to/2wLRQWl or at your local indie: https://www.indiebound.org/book/9780374274641
