Uncovering the Hidden Truths of Identity: A Riveting Journey Through Unbelonging
Jagoe skillfully weaves the book’s themes of home and belonging into essays that, at first glance, do not appear to follow that throughline. By the time we are done reading, we see how each reflects the book’s themes. One of my favorites is “Sessile,” about a project undertaken during the COVID-19 pandemic, when she spent hours studying a tree in her community. The word “sessile” means standing still. “During that time, my lifelong habit of wanting to be elsewhere laid itself quietly and unobtrusively to rest,” she writes. Forced to stay in Wisconsin, she spends hours observing a sycamore tree—a living thing that, like her pandemic self, stays in one place. As she learns about the species, she realizes it also is found in other locations she calls home, where it’s sometimes known by different names. “Uncovering these interwoven names and species felt emblematic, a metaphor for my life of entwined countries and languages,” she writes.
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