One of the most striking elements of Keri English’s relatively short book, HATS AND OTHER MUSINGS: Stories from a New York Life, is its structure: seemingly random, diffuse pieces of writing are somehow assembled into a coherent narrative. This perhaps reflects the author’s experience of finding a way of making sense of the world via the writing process. The author introduces the concept of hats at the beginning of her memoir, reflecting on their role in a particular period of her life. From Waiting for Godot to The Catcher in the Rye, hats have played a highly symbolic role in literature and often symbolize a manifestation of identity or a quest to find it. This may or may not be the case for the writer of HATS, but it doesn’t seem unreasonable to interpret the author’s penchant for headgear as a way of experimenting with her own sense of identity during a period of instability and anxiety. Ironically, it becomes clear that what was going on inside English’s head was far more significant than whatever was covering its exterior.
HATS AND OTHER MUSINGS is organized into four parts, with the concentrated viscera of her poetry mainly occupying the two middle parts. The poetry is terse and painful to read, an authentic outpouring of the darkest of emotions. Yet this is superseded by a message of hope: after years of indecisiveness, lack of direction and angst, English finds the reserves of strength within herself to carve out a more contented way of being. Finding her voice as a writer played no small part in this – and this appears to be a message that she is keen to convey, rendering this book something of a manifesto as well as a memoir.
Growing up and finding oneself is difficult for most people; in English’s case, this may have been compounded by inhabiting a city that the world sees as congested, urbane, and driven by commerce – all rather intimidating. The themes of anxiety and mental health will no doubt resonate with many young adults, or indeed anyone who has spent more time than they’d like within their own headspace. Reaching outside the self and helping others, whether through teaching or yoga, can be enormously therapeutic, as the author describes. Aspiring writers will also find solace in English’s insights. This book is not for everyone – some may consider the introspection to be of the ‘navel-gazing’ variety. Nevertheless, HATS does capture the zeitgeist of modern life and how it affects us as individuals.
In HATS AND OTHER MUSINGS, Keri English invites the reader into her troubled psyche and offers a potent message of encouragement that it is possible to emerge not only in one piece but with a cemented sense of wholeness.
~Amanda Ellison for IndieReader