This Is One Way to Dance: Essays (Crux: The Georgia Series in Literary Nonfiction Series)

This collection of linked essays begins with Shah's exploration of growing up in Rochester, New York, the daughter of Gujarati immigrants from India and Kenya, and covers twenty years of inhabiting a space where one's identity is only partially (and imperfectly) reflected back. One of the first essays, "Matrimonial," recounts a wedding where Shah as a young girl first realizes how discordant certain aspects of her own home life feel from her suburban New York surroundings and how wonderful it is to see the disparate elements come together for the first time: "I had never before seen people in my parents' generation dancing to Madonna, Abba, and Kool and the Gang. They wore suits and saris; they flung their hands in the air. It all looked out of place, incongruous, dissonant. It was culture shock but also perfect: here was the moment I had been waiting for my whole life...all of us in one room--a sonic embrace." This collection touches on how one's heritage alternately assimilates and asserts itself over the years as immigrants acclimate to new surroundings and how writing and the words that surface can be one way to navigate that sometimes awkward (even painful) dance. These essays are about race and belonging in an America that, as we all know, is not always welcoming. The conversation Shah has begun in this collection feels like a necessary one to be having right now. Highly recommend.

We are presently reading the book

Sejal Shah brings her unique gift for all of us to enjoy in our homes. It is clear that this book is a collection of life-long experiences as only few can share so well. I look forward to future work by Sejal Shah in the near future~!

A series of loosely connected essays with only the occasional insight. I am glad to have read it but not inspired.

A wonderful, far-ranging collection of essays about identity, love, loss, and literature. Loved it.