In this week's edition of Endnotes, we take a look at Maris Kreizman's I Want to Burn This Place Down, a fierce and witty essay collection. In its review, PW calls it "sharp and entertaining."
Here's how the book came together:
Maris Kreizman
“I came to this book from a place of anger, having become disillusioned with many of the institutions and ideas I had been taught to revere. My original proposal contained a list of things I used to believe—you’ve gotta pay your dues, checks and balances—and the book was to illustrate how and in which particular moments I went from a bright-eyed believer in hard work paying off to a hard-won skeptic. And then, after all that, I had to find my way to hope again, albeit a different kind.”
Sarah Burnes
“As the essays started to accrue, I knew there was a really important book there. As a fellow white lady who was painfully late to realizing that the institutions I’d put my faith in were letting us all down, I knew she was speaking for a large cohort. And I was just so impressed and moved by how fearless and articulate she is on the page.”
Deborah Ghim
“Maris brings her whole self to the page, and much like the narrator of these essays, as a reviser she is hardworking, humble, and whip-smart. I was incredibly impressed by her innate sensibility for what makes a story flow, such that all it took was a few open-ended questions from me to help her find her argumentative focus.”
Vivian Rowe
“Maris had a pretty good idea of how the cover should look and feel, based on some images of vintage matchbooks. The raw rage and frustration is evident in the title and it’s very provocative. Obviously red and the middle finger gesture are such recognizable symbols of all that, and the type has that same all-caps urgency too.”
