“Pure art… something new to me every time I read it”

“Dear Ms. Kushner,

It honestly feels surreal writing this email. I'll keep it short and hopefully profound, as I've found you do often in your writing.

I found your book, The Conditions of Love, when I was twelve. It was on the recommended table of a closing bookstore, and I decided to buy it based on the cover alone. When I finally got around to reading it, I was blown away. I sat down on my carpet, read for the next five hours, and finished it for the first time. I decided to annotate it a month later, still fresh on my mind, but I gave up when I started highlighting every line.

This book, your book, is pure art.

I re-read it every few months, open it up to a random page, and dive into the world of Eunice. I will love this book forever; it means something new to me every time I read it. Even now, I can't say for sure why I love this book so much. Maybe it's the nostalgia. Or the way you write, so full of life and truth. It could be the similarities I can draw to my own life and the life I haven't yet lived. All I know is that I love this book, the characters, and the imperfect way they love each other.

Your book, as well as your poems and blogs, have inspired me in so many ways. Your words are so eerily authentic, straight from universal secrets that I thought were unquestionably taboo and unique to me. It's like Eunice predicted my life before it happened, and yet the two of us could not be less alike.

I'm not sure if this email will ever find you, but I can only hope that the sentiment carries somewhere. Thank you for bringing this book into the world and for changing my life in ways I couldn't have begun to predict as a twelve-year-old.

Thank you.”

—D.B., Reader