Russell, Lauren: A Window That Can Neither Open Nor Close

Milkweed Editions, paperback Publication Date: August 27, 2024 Publisher Marketing:  An intimate and kaleidoscopic entry in the Multiverse series that excavates survival, storytelling, and coming to terms with an unruly mind. In A Window That Can Neither Open nor Close, the stakes of writing are also the stakes of living. "Though I no longer wanted to die," writes Lauren Russell, "our first years together were not easy ... because I also did not want to live." From this enigmatic in-between, Russell dives into multitudes: cats and questions; compulsion and devotion; narrative and diagnosis; language and loneliness; scrupulosity and stasis; suicidality and love. Resisting the neurotypical expectation to choose any one answer arising from her explorations, she invites readers to engage: a pop quiz, a twelve-sided die, an abecedarian confession, a box of mirrors, several idiosyncratic diagnostic tools, and a suite of obsidian waiting rooms. Holding binaries in suspense, Russell seamlessly