The essays in Tochi Onyebuchi's Racebook provide readers with thought-provoking and eclectic cultural criticism. They explore the art and world-building of video games. There are deep insights on the intersection of race and the Internet. Social media, of course, comes into play. With his keen eye for good sentences and impressive knowledge of literature, popular media, and the human condition, Onyebuchi (Harmattan Season; War Girls) pulls together his diverse topics using the thread of how identity exists online.
"I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream" tackles the thorny question of a Black writer's duty in times of unrest, considering the pressures and constraints placed on authors from marginalized backgrounds during the wave of outrage following George Floyd's death. "How responsible is it... to want time to be left alone, to chase joy in the hum of an Xbox?" Onyebuchi digs deeper, wondering what authors are pressured to write about and what topics might be off limits, positing that "What matters is the choice."
Elsewhere, in "Select Difficulty," Onyebuchi weaves together the experience of losing his father to cancer at 10 years old with that of playing The Last of Us--a game that is gory, terrifying, and also gorgeous. "In the postapocalyptic United States, greenery abounds. The sun sets to give you the game's own version of Manhattanhenge." It's a tender and surprising rumination on loss, storytelling across media, and the parent-child relationship.
Racebook is a feast of cultural references and a deeply considered analysis of who we are on the Internet and how race plays into the equation. --Carol Caley, writer