2020/79: LOTE --Shola von Reinhold

2020/79: LOTE --Shola von Reinhold

The classic counterpart traits of the Arcadian, like a fondness for old objects and buildings, and an inclination towards historicised figments, were, as far as I was concerned, much easier to inhabit for white people, who continued to cast and curate all the readymade, ready-to-hand visions. Being born in a body that’s apparently historically impermissible, however, only meant I was not as prone to those traps that lie in wait for Arcadians — the various and insidious forms of history-worship and past-lust. [loc. 178]

Lote, by (non-binary?) debut author Shola von Reinhold, is one of Jacaranda's #Twentyin2020 initiative -- publishing twenty books by black British writers this year. It's a stunning novel that sets a high bar: aesthetics, queerness, Blackness, alchemy, Modernism ...
( probably spoilery, who knows )