Over at VOLTA, Laura Goldstein discusses the challenging issues raised by Kim Rosenfield’s Lividity, such as the fact that, “[w]hen examined separately, each element of a system becomes increasingly difficult to react ethically to, especially when the structure itself seems so well-intentioned.”  Yet Rosenfield’s book, Goldstein argues, proves that

the substance of language that has evolved with humans, however immaterial, if arranged in certain combinations, can do more than shift the mind into spaces that give us pause and perspective. Writing like this can create new spaces entirely that then linger and haunt what we’re accustomed to as reality. Kim Rosenfield’s book has this quality. Working with a heightened consciousness of the elements of genre and medium, she gives us a mirror for meditation, a meticulous mise-en-scene to consider carefully, an object that has to be looked at rather than just read through. The eeriest thing we learn about mirrors from dreams is not what we see in them, but all of the implications of having one.

Read the full review here.