Tanaïs narrates their memoir about their personal life, the Covid-19 pandemic, and perfume. This material is intermixed with the complicated history of the Indian subcontinent. The overall effect of Tanaïs’s soft voice and contemplative pace has a meditative effect on the listener. This work could be listened to while unwinding on long walks but perhaps not during road trips. The author is a master of language, whose long, fluid sentences are read with smooth, silky confidence that matches this exploration of memories tied to scent, places, and historical moments. For those who are looking for something unique in a memoir, this might be just the thing. M.R. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine
The 2022 Kirkus Prize Winner for Nonfiction
Fragrance*has long been used to*mark*who is civilized and who is barbaric, who is pure and who is polluted, who is free and who is damned-
Focusing their gaze on our most primordial sense, writer and perfumer Tanaïs weaves*a brilliant and expansive memoir, a reckoning that*offers a critical, alternate history of South Asia*from an American Bangladeshi Muslim femme perspective.*From stories of their*childhood*in the South, Midwest, and New York;*to transcendent experiences with lovers, psychedelics, and fragrances;*to trips home to their motherland, Tanaïs builds a universe of memories and scent: a sensorium.*Alongside their personal history, and at the very heart of this work, is*an interrogation of the ancient violence of caste, rape culture, patriarchy, war, and the inherited ancestral trauma of being from a*lush*land constantly denuded, a land still threatened and disappearing because of colonization, capitalism, and climate change.*
Structured like a perfume-moving from base to heart to head notes-IN SENSORIUM interlaces eons of South Asian perfume history, erotic and religious texts, survivor testimonies, and material culture with memoir.*In Sensorium*is archive and art, illuminating the great crises of our time with the language of Liberation.
The 2022 Kirkus Prize Winner for Nonfiction
Fragrance*has long been used to*mark*who is civilized and who is barbaric, who is pure and who is polluted, who is free and who is damned-
Focusing their gaze on our most primordial sense, writer and perfumer Tanaïs weaves*a brilliant and expansive memoir, a reckoning that*offers a critical, alternate history of South Asia*from an American Bangladeshi Muslim femme perspective.*From stories of their*childhood*in the South, Midwest, and New York;*to transcendent experiences with lovers, psychedelics, and fragrances;*to trips home to their motherland, Tanaïs builds a universe of memories and scent: a sensorium.*Alongside their personal history, and at the very heart of this work, is*an interrogation of the ancient violence of caste, rape culture, patriarchy, war, and the inherited ancestral trauma of being from a*lush*land constantly denuded, a land still threatened and disappearing because of colonization, capitalism, and climate change.*
Structured like a perfume-moving from base to heart to head notes-IN SENSORIUM interlaces eons of South Asian perfume history, erotic and religious texts, survivor testimonies, and material culture with memoir.*In Sensorium*is archive and art, illuminating the great crises of our time with the language of Liberation.
Editorial Reviews
Product Details
BN ID: | 2940175961585 |
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Publisher: | HarperCollins |
Publication date: | 02/22/2022 |
Edition description: | Unabridged |