How to Be Normal: Essays

Critic and lecturer Christman (Midwest Futures) examines in these searching essays his various identities—as white, heterosexual, and a “left-of-center Christian,” to name a few—through the lens of their being unexceptional. Despite what the title suggests, this isn’t a how-to, but rather an exploration of averageness in which Christman considers such subjects as racism, masculinity, artistry and religion. In “How to Be White,” he surveys the “vast, flimsy” nature of “whiteness” and lambasts “shit-eating allyism,” in which “a person of privilege suspends, at least rhetorically—most of the time it is only rhetorical—their... claim to basic self-respect or human rights.” He critiques the prevalent usage of vague terms to assign value to art in “How to Be Cultured (II): Middlebrow,” observing how in America, “None of us can enjoy our pleasures till we think someone wants us not to have them.” Christman is at his sharpest when analyzing religion, as seen in “How to Be Religious (II): Fundamentalism,” in which he reflects, “What growing up fundamentalist helped me learn early on, is how terribly wrong you can be while thinking very hard.” While there are moments in which Christman doesn’t sufficiently articulate his line of thinking, his style is, for the most part, cogent and on-point. It’s a probing and provocative collection. (Feb.)