Ariel Saramandi, author of Portrait of an Island on Fire, has shared a few books that inspired the writing of her essay collection.
Portrait of an Island on Fire is a deeply moving and revelatory collection of essays that form a searing account of Mauritius at a crucial moment in its history. For all its well-placed anger, Ariel Saramandi’s sparklingly intelligent and intimate debut is full of love and momentum – a push for a better future for Mauritius and, by extension, for the world.
Collected Essays by James Baldwin, ed. Toni Morrison (1998)
Baldwin’s ‘Stranger in the Village’ was the first essay I read that made me want to write essays myself (and to write like Baldwin – because who wouldn’t want to be able to do that?)
Selected Essays by John Berger, ed. Geoff Dyer (2001)
I think I started reading Berger’s novels and essays the same year I read Baldwin’s collected works, around 2016-2017. Excellent, aspirational company to have in a lonely year.
K-Punk by Mark Fisher, ed. Darren Ambrose (2018)
I read a good twenty to thirty books a week for the four years I was at university, not exactly unaware that I’d never have that kind of reading time to myself again. I could list a whole syllabus of books that were instrumental to my thinking, but I’ve just spotted K-Punk on the shelf. I’m glad that I discovered his work when I was in my early twenties. Fisher had this knack of clarifying some of the most intricate theoretical concepts, and he could do it in a paragraph. He was brilliant.
Playing in the Dark: Whiteness and the Literary Imagination by Toni Morrison (1992)
Like Baldwin, Morrison’s fiction and essays have greatly shaped how I think. When I read this collection in 2018 or so, I went back to books written by Mauritians and reread them with a wholly different, more coruscating eye. I am indebted to her work.
Out of Place by Edward W. Said (2000)
Everyone’s read Orientalism, Culture & Imperialism and The Question of Palestine and all of these books are absolutely essential. I don’t see his memoir talked about that often though, and I hope that this will change, because it is extraordinary.
Close to the Knives: A Memoir of Disintegration by David Wojnarowicz (2017)
This was gifted to me by my friend and translator Jeffrey Zuckerman when he came to Mauritius in 2018. It’s a gorgeous essay collection; I love Wojnarowicz’s fluidity, the suppleness of his sentences, and how they just rage through.
