LOTE by Shola von Reinhold

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

“Like Europeans in a Henry James, we would be creatures of genteel penury, full of education, artifice, a little vampiric, duping all the dull rich people around us. Except we were Black, except were poor, except we were basically self-taught (by their standards), except we were infinitely more subtle and fabulous…”

TITLE—LOTE

AUTHOR—Shola von Reinhold

PUBLISHED—2020

PUBLISHER—Jacaranda Books (UK)

GENRE—literary fiction

SETTING—UK & Europe, late 2010s-ish

MAIN THEMES/SUBJECTS—taste—> interests—>Transfixions—>identity, systemic & systematic suppression of Black(/Queer) history/art/identity, Luxury (The Luxuries/A Luxury) & joy/pleasure, secret societies, art history & art museums, artists’ residency, Thought Art, the cult of western philosophies/ideologies/isms, etc., Lotus Eaters, androgyny, angels, Black trans experience, intersectional queer liberation, anti-colonialism & anti-capitalism, shoplifting, contrasting sociocultural regions in Europe, champagne & other gourmet delectables, friendships & alliances, trust, deception & betrayal, DIY-haute-couture fashion as queer identity expression, problematic faves, the nearly inconceivable complexities of human experience/history, a critique of what is considered to be “real” history/facts/evidence, Death, Escapes, secrets & past lives

Blurbs:

“In choosing to conjure Black voices through historical revisionism, rather than, say, Afrofuturism or pure fiction, the novel produces a new archive—a radical reference tool populated by real and imagined historical figures, Anons who have been festooned, fleshed-out, and freed from the rude imposition of marginality, anonymity and defacement.” — Izabella Scott

“Shola von Reinhold’s LOTE recruits literary innovation into the project of examining social marginalisation, queerness, class, Black Modernisms and archival absences. A critically important and hugely original debut.” — Isabel Waidner

“LOTE is a decadent celebration of portraiture, queer history and Blackness, and a bitingly funny work of fiction. In this book, von Reinhold provides us with a mischievous new work of aesthetic theory, as well as a glorious and gorgeously imagined fictional world. Ingenious; irresistible; a dazzling first novel.” — Naomi Booth

My thoughts:

This book was✨flawless.✨ I could almost feel my mind bending & expanding while reading it.

A past-less, luxury-forward MC on the hunt for her next Escape opportunity. An art-historian, activist mentor. Reluctant cohorts that turn into fierce friends. A pure-hearted, vulnerable confidante whose suffering will break your heart more than once & whose return will leave you in an absolute puddle of happysad tears.

The journeys of this colorful cast of characters take you from the art museums & private collections of London to an artists’ residency somewhere along the intersecting cultural borders of west-, north-, & eastern continental Europe; from the literature & art of queer & Black, misunderstood & suppressed creative individuals throughout western history, to the informal & secret societies of intellectual “elites” in whose midst western culture’s yt cisheteronormativity fights its soulless battle against the beauty & life-affirming perseverance of queer & Black existence.

I simultaneously wanted to inhale this book & savor every single word. I could have spent a thousand pages in von Reinhold’s world, in the company of Mathilda & Erskine-Lily & Hermia, just for ages & ages. I talk a lot about the philosophy of books being a big make or break for me & the philosophy of this one was *so* solid that I felt like my own world view was expanding & clarifying as I was reading it. Plus I learned a bunch of new words like “semaphore,” “monadically,” “orchidaceous,” & “oleaginous.” And the interlacing, fourth-dimensional layers of it all! The whole thing was just the epitome of my *ideal* reading experience, truly.

Really I cannot praise or recommend this book highly enough.

“Moonlight, of a kind, sighed up and down the tube of my spine, but above all, that indescribable note which accompanied all my Transfixions was present: humming beneath the high fine rush—probably not dissimilar to holy rapture—was an almost violent familiarity. The feeling of not only recognising, but of having been recognised. A new Transfixion.”

I would recommend this book to readers who love a beautiful, thought provoking, challenging read about Black & Queer identity/history/art, set in many-layered & vividly-realized European cities & towns, with a captivating amount of theory & intellectual musings, all filtered through a charming, highly relatable, vulnerable, compassionate, & *deeply* true-to-herself MC. This book is best read with a certain amount of focus & a glass of something sparkling to hand. 🍒🥂✨

Final note: I could definitely see myself rereading this one on the regular, like, *yearly.* Maybe multiple times a year… actually I might revisit this in September when I read dark academia. 😁

“‘Luxury-stained,’ said Erskine-Lily gravely on the bus back to Dun, ‘the pair of us.’

‘And none to start with.’

‘And none of it ours.’”

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

CW // houselessness, financial insecurity, racism & microaggressions, transphobia & transphobic violence (Please feel free to DM me for more specifics!)

Season: This book has excellent (& brilliantly subverted) dark academia vibes so whenever you’re feeling that genre, pick this one up. Although it would also be just the thing for those intoxicatingly warm Summer evenings… especially in firefly season, with a cheeky little glass of iced rosé champagne… 😙👌🏻

Music pairing: “Choreomania,” by Florence and the Machine

Further Reading—

• Helen Oyeyemi

  • Read my ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ review for BOY SNOW BIRD on storygraph here.

  • Read my ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ review for WHITE IS FOR WITCHING on storygraph here.

  • Read my ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ review for THE OPPOSITE HOUSE on storygraph here.

  • Read my ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ review for PEACES on storygraph here.

• THE END OF MR Y by Scarlett Thomas—TBR

• Also POPCO, THE SEED COLLECTORS, & OLIGARCHY by Scarlett Thomas

  • Read my ★ ★ ★ ★ .75 review for POPCO on storygraph here.

  • Read my ★ ★ ★ ★ .75 review for THE SEED COLLECTORS on storygraph here.

  • Read my ★ ★ ★ ★ .75 review for OLIGARCHY on storygraph here.

• NO ONE DIES YET by Kobby Ben Ben (queer Black expression through art; intense literary writing style)

  • Read my ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ review for NO ONE DIES YET on the storygraph here.

• NO GODS NO MONSTERS by Cadwell Turnbull (secret societies, anarchist themes)

  • Read my ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ review for NO GODS NO MONSTERS on storygraph here.

• A BOOK OF SECRETS by Kate Morrison (historical fiction about a Black woman in Renaissance Europe)—TBR

• ORLANDO by Virginia Woolf (mentioned in the novel, lots of similar themes)

• CANE by Jean Toomer—TBR

• THE SECRET HISTORY by Donna Tartt (LOTE feels in some parts like a critique/subversion of books like Tartt’s)

• “Take Only What Belongs to You” in FRUITING BODIES by Kathryn Harlan

  • Read my ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ review for FRUITING BODIES on storygraph here.

• “In Search of Zora Neale Hurston,” by Alice Walker

• BABEL by RF Kuang

  • Read my ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ review for BABEL on storygraph here.

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