Things That Are: Essays

In her first book, illustrated by Nate Christopherson, Whiting Award–winner Leach has produced a collection of creative nonfiction essays that unfortunately comes across as twee. The recipe: animate inanimate objects, personify animals, add a dash of hypothetical wonder, throw in hard facts, end your essay with a question, and presume connections between the tangible and ephemeral. Repeat. While Leach is able to create moments of verbal delight (“Who can twig the intricated soul of the pirouetting bird?”), her forays into pop philosophy prove less effective: “But... who... who... does not miss everything?” Essays such as “Warbler Delight” are more successful, especially when Leach’s sense of wonder matches the small feats of the subject. However, other diatribes of delight border on the obvious and insubstantial. Allowing for too many authorial indulgences, Leach’s extreme individuality veers into inscrutability. B&w illus. Agent: Jin Auh, the Wylie Agency. (July)