Book Review: Indelicacy by Amina Cain

How to Use Your Eyes by James Elkins was one of my most influential books. Ensconced in my world of words, I rarely allowed other senses to operate inside my mind. Elkins´ thoughts though helped me to start a long way where multiplicity instead of monochromy shapes my worldview.

Amina Cain´s Indelicacy was an intriguing read where seeing and being seen are reinterpreted and re-assigned through the process of writing. After reading her thoughs on writing, I couldn´t wait too long until reading her way too short yet philosophically inspiring novel. 

Vitória, the woman character of the book who is first named by her name in the second half of the novel, and after that maybe maximum 2 other times until the end, used to be a cleaner in an art gallery. Until she married a young and good looking rich man and she can dedicate her time to writing. ´I´m writing about myself looking at paintings (...) And sometimes at plants´.

But being surrounded by beauty doesn´t always bring beauty inside, or beautify the writing, for instance. She keeps her writing mostly to herself, but her soul is looking for more, for new adventures of the sight to discover the world and write about it. It is a primal need to go and search for it, and to put everything into words afterwards. And this is how books can affect us too. ´In books I found even more strongly my desire to write back to them and their gagged, perfect words. I found life that ran close to my own´. Ensconced in the cocoon of writing and reading, one needs space in the world outside, but either to get more inspiration or to put the imagination at trial. Books are an existential challenge.

The world of arts, Vitória is looking at, can offer more consistency than reality, and either turn reality into a second hand copy. Art is feelings and words and images together can remake, re-translate the world in its own vocabulary. ´It rains in a drawing, and if the drawing is good, you feel wet. The hard rain falls on the umbrellas moving slowly down the street´. 

The inclination of being an art lover and a books lover, doesn´t automatically make you an artist or a writer in the audience-focused kind of creative work. But words and colours do need a way out and this can make the life, as an overall experience different. It is stronger than life, because, for some, it really means being alive.

I am grateful for having discovered this year Amina Cain, but I am definitely searching for more of her writings. When philosophy and creativity meet, there are sparkles in the brain.

Rating: 4.5 stars