Too Much and Not the Mood, Durga ChewBose
Too Much and Not the Mood, Durga ChewBose
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Too Much and Not the Mood
Essays

Author: Durga Chew-Bose

Narrator: Emily Woo Zeller

Unabridged: 6 hr 8 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 02/11/2020


Synopsis

An entirely original portrait of a young writer shutting out the din in order to find her own voice.

On April 11, 1931, Virginia Woolf ended her entry in A Writer's Diary with the words "too much and not the mood." She was describing how tired she was of correcting her own writing, of the "cramming in and the cutting out" to please other readers, wondering if she had anything at all that was truly worth saying.

The character of that sentiment, the attitude of it, inspired Durga Chew-Bose to write and collect her own work. The result is a lyrical and piercingly insightful collection of essays and her own brand of essay-meets-prose poetry about identity and culture. Inspired by Maggie Nelson's Bluets, Lydia Davis's short prose, and Vivian Gornick's exploration of interior life, Chew-Bose captures the inner restlessness that keeps her always on the brink of creative expression.

Too Much and Not the Mood is a beautiful and surprising exploration of what it means to be a first-generation, creative young woman working today.

About Durga Chew-Bose

Durga Chew-Bose is a Montreal-born writer. Her work has appeared in the Globe and Mail, Hazlitt, Filmmaker, the New Inquiry, and the Guardian, among other publications. She is the author of Too Much and Not the Mood.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Natalie

On April 11, 1931, Virginia Woolf ended her entry in A Writer’s Diary with the words “too much and not the mood.” She was describing how tired she was of correcting her own writing, of the “cramming in and the cutting out” to please other readers, wondering if she had anything at all that was truly......more

Too much nonsense and I wasn't in the mood. This florid, contrived style of writing really didn't work for me. I bet that many intellectuals and pseudo-intellectuals will go bananas for this, but I am neither. I'm just a crab who likes books, and I did not like this one.......more

there are some books that make you feel like you're going through a slump, and some that make you want to take your time and savour it. Too Much and Not the Mood was the latter. it took me a long time to read it, but every few sentences i wanted to pause and reconsider my life. truly a gem. full rev......more

Goodreads review by Janet

Mostly self-absorbed and rambling with a few gems of insight.......more