Thin Skin is an essay collection about our conception of boundaries on the one hand, and the reality of boundarylessness on the other. That is, it's aThin Skin is an essay collection about our conception of boundaries on the one hand, and the reality of boundarylessness on the other. That is, it's a book about the permeability of (ostensible) boundaries, how that permeability is both sustenance and poison, strength and weakness. Shapland's five essays are interested in the porousness of the self, the way the self acts and is acted upon by forces that are not "outside" it so much as inextricably tied to, and enmeshed within, it. In "Thin Skin," those forces are toxic--radioactive plants, nuclear weapons testing, chemical dumping--and their impact is devastating and far-reaching. In "The Toomuchness" the forces are capitalistic, driving the inexhaustible desire to consume, to buy, to accumulate. "Strangers on a Train" takes on the threat of "the other" that goes hand in hand with white femininity, "Crystal Vortex" the complex give and take of artistic practice, and "The Meaning of Life" the realities and possibilities of the choice not to have children. And no matter the topic, what I love about Shapland's essays is how they are at once critical and affirming, clear-eyed in their recognition and critique of disparity and injustice, and yet equally insistent that there are alternatives, other ways of living and being. To have "thin skin" is to be vulnerable to an increasingly hostile and precarious world, but it is also to be alive to that world, to its vitality and its richness.
All these essays are carried by Shapland's crystalline prose, which has a distinct frankness that I always find myself drawn to (this especially comes across in the audiobook, which she narrates herself). In a book that is so much about porousness, Shapland's writing is itself also porous, capacious, open to possibilities and explorations, angles old and new. As with every essay collection I love, Thin Skin pools together a wide range of sources: scientific studies, literary works, interviews conducted by Shapland herself, and Shapland's own life and experience. It's a wide-ranging collection, but it still manages to keep that essential core of itself--its thin skin-ness--throughout. I really loved this one, and it's definitely cemented Jenn Shapland as an author whose works I will always look out for. ...more
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