The Attic on Eighth — The Attic On Eighth

The Art of Intimation: On the Intimate Languages of Naoise Dolan’s Exciting Times and Katie Kitamura’s Intimacies

Reading Naoise Dolan’s Exciting Times and Katie Kitamura’s Intimacies, Rachel Tay explores the unease of moving away from one’s own country and language.

LiteratureRachel TayFebruary 20, 2022Rachel Tay, lit, literature, Editor's Picks, popularComment

Watching The Queen’s Gambit; on the Remarkable Unexceptionality of Beth Harmon

In her new review of the smash hit Netflix series The Queen’s Gambit, Contributor Rachel Tay examines the comfort of unexpected normalcy in the extraordinary, both in the show’s lead character and the world built around her.

Rachel TayJanuary 12, 2021Comment

The Choices We Make: On Sophie Mackintosh’s Blue Ticket

In her latest book review for The Attic on Eighth, Rachel Tay turns to Sophie Mackintosh’s Blue Ticket and addresses the topics of choice around motherhood, aided by the work of Jacqueline Rose in Mothers.

Literature, Book ReviewsRachel TayAugust 5, 2020Sophie Mackintosh, Blue Ticket, Rachel Tay, literature, lit, contemporary literature, Contemporary Lit, motherhoodComment

Anaesthetised by Solitude: On Ottessa Moshfegh’s Death in Her Hands

In her latest book review, Rachel Tay celebrates Ottessa Moshfegh’s newly released Death In Her Hands and considers what reading about solitude does to the mind in lockdown.

LiteratureRachel TayJune 23, 2020Ottessa Moshfegh, Death In Her Hands, lit, literature, contemporary literature, new releases, book reviews, Rachel TayComment

In Fernanda Melchor’s Hurricane Season, a Dead Witch Speaks

“For, in Hurricane Season, one is never drawn out of a twister and into a fairytale. Rather, in its terrific torrent of trauma, deceit, desire and greed, only the cruel lashes of failure and poverty remain.” Writer Rachel Tay reviews Fernanda Melchor’s Hurricane Season.

Letters to Mother: Children Writing Across the Boundaries of Language and Memory

Cultural writer Rachel Tay turns to Annie Ernaux’s I Remain in Darkness – the most recent of her works to be translated into English – and Ocean Vuong’s On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous to consider a genre of writing about mothers that transgresses the boundaries of language and memory.

LiteratureRachel TaySeptember 10, 2019literature, Book Review, book reviews, books to read, motherhood, mothers, Roland Barthes, Annie Ernaux, I Remain in Darkness, The Years, Ocean Vuong, On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous, discussing On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous, discussing Annie Ernaux, Rachel Tay

A Room of Want’s Own: Brief Comments on Female Desire in Three Summer Reads (and One Excellent British Tragicomedy)

Writer Rachel Tay explores the topic of female desire in three of the summer’s most popular and poignant reads – Mona Awad’s Bunny, Lara William’s Supper Club, and Lisa Taddeo’s Three Women – before turning to Phoebe Waller-Bridge and the phenomenon that was and is Fleabag.