Christie Tate author of "Group" talks about her writing experience chicagotribune.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from chicagotribune.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
The Perils of Social Distancing
Credit.Alexandra Bowman
By Marissa King
Reading Marissa King’s “Social Chemistry” during a pandemic is an unsettling experience. King, who wrote her book well before Covid-19 hit, details the dangers of not meeting in person: “After two months without an in-person gathering, feelings of closeness between family members dropped by more than 30 percent. … After that, friendships go frigid.” She writes of the positive effects of brief moments of “high-quality” connection in public spaces: “Spending a couple of minutes casually interacting with a stranger or barista can make us as happy as spending the same amount of time with our romantic partner.” And of the power of touch: “While we often think of hugs as a way of catching colds, they can be surprisingly good at preventing them.” As companies like JPMorgan Chase reconsidered office space altogether and Dr. Anthony Fauci called for the end of the handshake, it’s hard not to r
When COVID hit, I made a vow to read any book strongly recommended to me. That s how I found myself simultaneously devouring Christie Tate s well-written memoir
GROUP: HOW ONE THERAPIST AND A CIRCLE OF STRANGERS SAVED MY LIFE (Avid Reader Press) and my favorite 2020 work of fiction, Charles Baxter s
THE SUN COLLECTIVE (Pantheon). Overachieving neurotic Tate s revelations aren t earth-shattering but give an honest, entertaining look at healing through opening up to strangers turned allies. Baxter s novel is our story: a society untethered from its moral ground, swaying in the greed and anxiety of a Trump-ish leader named Amos Alonzo Thorkelson as rumors of the mythical Sandmen killing the poor and the Sun Collective perhaps taking out the rich pollute everything. Meanwhile, Baxter s patented polite Midwesterners do their buttoned-down best to get by. Baxter remains one our very finest writers, and you should seek out his work now.
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