Reading: Tremor by Teju Cole

Excellent even though I don’t think I loved it as much as Open City. Like Open City there is not much of a plot. It is mostly a series of observations on art and relationships. How beautiful and revered paintings often have awful histories when you actually take a moment to think about how it ended up in the gallery you’re viewing it in.

Both Open City and Tremor have protagonists who are constantly thinking about and expressing ideas about art in a way that makes you as the reader want to be able to do the same. Open City made me want to appreciate Mahler as much as Julius did. And Tremor had me wanting to listen to Feta Kuti and be able to want to know the history and cultural context of West African music (or any genre) as well as Tunde did. I really loved the part of Tremor where Tunde spoke of how vital music is to him:

It is now an acoustic amulet averting evil from him. The music shields him. Could that be true, that it shields him? Isn’t there something weak in this as a response to bright unbearable reality? But he knows it shields him, he knows he is defended by it as a private protection that he can hardly speak about without seeming to be speaking about something else.