Strange Places

Puncturing holes in social norms is the first review of Is This an Illness or an Accident?.  It just came out in the British Columbia Review this week. I read it with trepidation … as this is my debut foray into prose.

 I appreciate how the reviewer pulled through various threads and picked up on unifying themes. This is one of the questions that sat in the back of my mind. I know the unifying themes, and intuit them.  I wanted to trust the reader they will pick up on them too, did not want to be too obvious. The gifts reviews give are exactly answers to such quandaries and questions you are left with after the book is published. I hope the book is also funny, in ways that one can be funny about very serious things.

“Elza’s essay collection, Is This an Illness or an Accident? is a wide-ranging, introspective essay collection that punctures holes in capitalism, small talk, and social norms. Elza writes about the nebulousness of belonging from the perspective of a “third culture kid”—she was born in Bulgaria, grew up in Nigeria, attended school in America, and now lives in Canada—the financial precarities and social interpretations of working (mothering, volunteering, writing) that isn’t recognized as work, the relationship between trees and language, the absurd impact of bureaucratic forms, the over-romanticization of travel, the lack of affordability in Vancouver, the evolution of her marriage, the vagaries of online dating, and the glorious superiority and family legacy of homemade yogurt.”

Daniela Elza puts everyday assumptions into a scrutinizing light.

Thank you Jessica Poon for your engagement with this close to my heart book.  Thank you Caitlin Press  for the work you put into bringing this book out into the world. And thank you British Columbia Review for your dedication to the good work of engaging and connecting readers with books.