In his much-anticipated follow-up to The Crown Ain’t Worth Much,
poet, essayist, music critic, and New York Times bestselling author
Hanif Abdurraqib has written a book of poems about how one rebuilds
oneself after a heartbreak, the kind that renders them a different
version of themselves than the one they knew. It’s a book about a
mother’s death, and finally admitting that Michael Jordan pushed
off in the ’98 finals. It’s about forgiveness, and how none of
the author’s black friends wanted to listen to “Don’t Stop
Believin’.” It’s about wrestling with histories, personal and
shared, and how black people can write about flowers at a time like
this. Abdurraqib writes across different tones and registers, with
humor and sadness, and uses touchstones from the world outside—from
Marvin Gaye to Nikola Tesla to his neighbor’s dogs—to create a
mirror, inside of which every angle presents a new possibility.