A brilliant history of the orange that, like citrus, defies classification.
Goh uncovers the history of empires inside a ubiquitous fruit.
“I follow the orange because it offers a model for a hybrid existence and I, too, seek my own meaning in the world,” writes Goh in her multifaceted narration of citrus. She follows the history of the orange in research that spans continents, centuries, and legends. We learn of the orange’s mythic origins in China, the many Silk Roads that brought citrus to Europe, and the shorelines that European colonizers planted with the scurvy-defying fruits. Goh demonstrates how the history of the orange is a history of colonialism, a history of exoticism, and one of convenience. We learn of the bubonic plague, when orange peels were dried and used to mask the smell of sickness. In the 2020 pandemic, the author bought bags of oranges with gloved hands and a masked visage, the fruit distant from its origins, made clinical under fluorescent lights. Artfully interwoven in the narrative is Goh’s own history and that of her family. In rural China, the author meets her relatives, though they speak a dialect unknown to her. In Malaysia, she visits her aging grandmother and discovers pomelo orchards in the wake of tin extraction. And she writes of Ireland, the place of her upbringing and her mother’s family, where oranges are shipped across land and water to meet the desires of citrus-hungry consumers. “Per person, oranges are the most consumed fruit in the world,” she writes, and in these pages the fruit is seen across many essential parts of human history. Oranges expand into metaphors—the way we discuss family trees, hybridity, and naturalization are deconstructed, and their citrine trail reckoned with. Goh’s quest for self-knowledge mirrors the journey of citrus itself. In smart, engrossing prose, Goh teaches us as much about the fruits as about ourselves.
A brilliant history of the orange that, like citrus, defies classification.Pub Date: May 6, 2025
ISBN: 9781963108231
Page Count: -
Publisher: Tin House
Review Posted Online: March 4, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2025
PERSPECTIVES
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.
The veteran actor, comedian, and banjo player teams up with the acclaimed illustrator to create a unique book of cartoons that communicates their personalities.
Martin, also a prolific author, has always been intrigued by the cartoons strewn throughout the pages of the New Yorker. So when he was presented with the opportunity to work with Bliss, who has been a staff cartoonist at the magazine since 1997, he seized the moment. “The idea of a one-panel image with or without a caption mystified me,” he writes. “I felt like, yeah, sometimes I’m funny, but there are these other weird freaks who are actually funny.” Once the duo agreed to work together, they established their creative process, which consisted of working forward and backward: “Forwards was me conceiving of several cartoon images and captions, and Harry would select his favorites; backwards was Harry sending me sketched or fully drawn cartoons for dialogue or banners.” Sometimes, he writes, “the perfect joke occurs two seconds before deadline.” There are several cartoons depicting this method, including a humorous multipanel piece highlighting their first meeting called “They Meet,” in which Martin thinks to himself, “He’ll never be able to translate my delicate and finely honed droll notions.” In the next panel, Bliss thinks, “I’m sure he won’t understand that the comic art form is way more subtle than his blunt-force humor.” The team collaborated for a year and created 150 cartoons featuring an array of topics, “from dogs and cats to outer space and art museums.” A witty creation of a bovine family sitting down to a gourmet meal and one of Dumbo getting his comeuppance highlight the duo’s comedic talent. What also makes this project successful is the team’s keen understanding of human behavior as viewed through their unconventional comedic minds.
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.Pub Date: Nov. 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-26289-9
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2020
PERSPECTIVES
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...
Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").Pub Date: May 15, 1972
ISBN: 0205632645
Page Count: 105
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972
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