Bronwyn Averett

  • Sigal Samuel’s Hermeneutics

    In Sigal Samuel’s recent novel The Mystics of Mile End everyone is looking for a message. There’s the Meyer family, with David interpreting the vague murmurs of his erratic heart; his son Lev deciphering the flower caught in his teacher’s bicycle; and his daughter Samara seeking keys to climb the Tree of Life in order to fulfill her Kabbalistic journey. Lev and Samara’s Read more

  • The Office Retirement Party

    In the early days, people asked us questions like how long we would take off from work and had we researched daycares in the area. Had we read about attachment parenting? Would we let our baby cry it out? But other recent parents asked nothing about parenting at all. Instead, they asked us which television series Read more

  • How to Feel Like a Visitor in Your Everyday World

    Guys, we need to talk about Leena Krohn. As a longtime fan of Tove Jansson (creator of the Moomins) and Aki Kaurasmaki (go check out the Proletariat Trilogy and Le Havre right now), I was curious to see what other weird-and-wonderfuls Finland had to offer. Turns out, Finland has so much to offer and we’re just waiting Read more

  • “Colours of Jazz” and Immigration in the 1920’s

    It is interesting the way stories about art are told. In fact, I will just wallow in my obtuseness for a moment and say that, while I like to look at pretty things (and sometimes not-so-pretty-but-sort-of-interesting things), the stories are what interest me the most. My tendency at exhibits is to ogle the writing on the Read more

  • On Blessing Someone’s Heart

    The thing about deep cultural knowledge is that you don’t realize you have it until a piece of your culture gets appropriated. I have never considered myself particularly Southern, at least in the way that people take ‘Southern’ to mean. I do not frequently use y’all. When I ask for a Coke I do not mean some other Read more

  • Merry Christmas Introverts – Grab a Book

    Introverts have been receiving a lot of attention (ironic, no?) since Susan Cain’s book Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can’t Stop Talking came out in 2012. It was kind of a thing. In fact, it was a ‘revolution’.* My internet world suddenly became filled with everything from “The Introvert’s Guide to Shoe Shopping” to Read more