Pure Colour
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Description
Shortlisted for the 2023 Rathbones Folio Prize in Fiction
Named a Best Book of the Year by The New York Times, The New Yorker, Vulture, The Times Literary Supplement, and more
Pure Colour is a galaxy of a novel: explosive, celestially bright, huge, and streaked with beauty. It is a contemporary bible, an atlas of feeling, and an absurdly funny guide to the great (and terrible) things about being alive. Sheila Heti is a philosopher of modern experience, and she has reimagined what a book can hold.
Here we are, just living in the first draft of Creation, which was made by some great artist, who is now getting ready to tear it apart.
In this first draft of the world, a woman named Mira leaves home to study. There, she meets Annie, whose tremendous power opens Mira’s chest like a portal―to what, she doesn’t know. When Mira is older, her beloved father dies, and his spirit passes into her. Together, they become a leaf on a tree. But photosynthesis gets boring, and being alive is a problem that cannot be solved, even by a leaf. Eventually, Mira must remember the human world she’s left behind, including Annie, and choose whether or not to return.
Book Information
Posts
I loved Sheila Heti's "Motherhood". A lot. So of course I had to read "Pure Colour". But now I don't know how to review it. What do I say about a book I just felt too stupid for at times? One that felt so profound and so life-altering and was yet so hard to get through? The blurb really says it best: "It is a contemporary bible, an atlas of feeling, and a shape-shifting epic. Sheila Heti is a philosopher of modern experience, and she has reimagined what a book can hold." Don't expect a story. Expect to feel understood, having to underline a million quotable lines, being forced to question your own intellect. Expect not to get it and to like it anyways.
This is a painting of a child, and we're here trying to criticize it. Actually, people can't be a fish or a bear or a bird, and you definitely can't be green and live inside a leaf!!! The philosophical thoughts presented in the book do not seem to have been thought through to the end. Furthermore, contemporary literature should be more… Bla bla bla. We have to turn off the analytical and rational critic in the back of our mind for a minute (or even longer). Because if you try to approach this painting from this angle, you're missing the point. You're missing the true beauty, subtle boldness, and honesty that this pure, undisguised child gives to you. This book really feels like a precious gift, a well-kept secret, a lovely bedtime story a warm mother reads to her child. Something you once felt inside yourself and you never heard someone else express it in that naive clarity. This painting is flat like a leaf, it always stays at the surface, without being superficial, and its fine surface structure makes it so special. Every word is so carefully selected and carefree at the same time. She touches you with them, opens you up, and plants a seed into you. A seed of transformation. And if Sheila Heti accomplishes so much with so few words, then what more do you want from art? So, can you give a painting of a child 5 stars? Actually, I don't care. This book did something to me; I resonated and connected with this book on a deeper, intimate level. And I can't wait to reread it again.
Description
Shortlisted for the 2023 Rathbones Folio Prize in Fiction
Named a Best Book of the Year by The New York Times, The New Yorker, Vulture, The Times Literary Supplement, and more
Pure Colour is a galaxy of a novel: explosive, celestially bright, huge, and streaked with beauty. It is a contemporary bible, an atlas of feeling, and an absurdly funny guide to the great (and terrible) things about being alive. Sheila Heti is a philosopher of modern experience, and she has reimagined what a book can hold.
Here we are, just living in the first draft of Creation, which was made by some great artist, who is now getting ready to tear it apart.
In this first draft of the world, a woman named Mira leaves home to study. There, she meets Annie, whose tremendous power opens Mira’s chest like a portal―to what, she doesn’t know. When Mira is older, her beloved father dies, and his spirit passes into her. Together, they become a leaf on a tree. But photosynthesis gets boring, and being alive is a problem that cannot be solved, even by a leaf. Eventually, Mira must remember the human world she’s left behind, including Annie, and choose whether or not to return.
Book Information
Posts
I loved Sheila Heti's "Motherhood". A lot. So of course I had to read "Pure Colour". But now I don't know how to review it. What do I say about a book I just felt too stupid for at times? One that felt so profound and so life-altering and was yet so hard to get through? The blurb really says it best: "It is a contemporary bible, an atlas of feeling, and a shape-shifting epic. Sheila Heti is a philosopher of modern experience, and she has reimagined what a book can hold." Don't expect a story. Expect to feel understood, having to underline a million quotable lines, being forced to question your own intellect. Expect not to get it and to like it anyways.
This is a painting of a child, and we're here trying to criticize it. Actually, people can't be a fish or a bear or a bird, and you definitely can't be green and live inside a leaf!!! The philosophical thoughts presented in the book do not seem to have been thought through to the end. Furthermore, contemporary literature should be more… Bla bla bla. We have to turn off the analytical and rational critic in the back of our mind for a minute (or even longer). Because if you try to approach this painting from this angle, you're missing the point. You're missing the true beauty, subtle boldness, and honesty that this pure, undisguised child gives to you. This book really feels like a precious gift, a well-kept secret, a lovely bedtime story a warm mother reads to her child. Something you once felt inside yourself and you never heard someone else express it in that naive clarity. This painting is flat like a leaf, it always stays at the surface, without being superficial, and its fine surface structure makes it so special. Every word is so carefully selected and carefree at the same time. She touches you with them, opens you up, and plants a seed into you. A seed of transformation. And if Sheila Heti accomplishes so much with so few words, then what more do you want from art? So, can you give a painting of a child 5 stars? Actually, I don't care. This book did something to me; I resonated and connected with this book on a deeper, intimate level. And I can't wait to reread it again.