Staff Pick
Ryckman's claustrophobic dissertation on an obsessive, long distance, on-again, off-again love affair perfectly conveys the complicated emotions of loneliness, desire, and fear. Tangled together, these emotions grow and overtake our thinking to such a degree that it makes "love" and "hate" seem more like twins than opposites. Ryckman digs deeply to expose the bewildering feelings underneath the reasoning of the raw soul caught in the crosshairs of love. Recommended By Dianah H., Powells.com
Synopses & Reviews
Exploring the narcissism inherent in infatuation, exposing the awkward, disorienting state of passion, and articulating the comic nature that permeates the melodrama of our existence, I Don’t Think of You (Until I Do) is a needed novella of our time. Tatiana Ryckman chronicles the struggles of a long-distance relationship from summer to summer, forming a series of unsent musings to the beloved by the unnamed lover — all while keeping names and gender anonymous. At times funny, this sexy, charged, and deeply felt novella captures what loving from a distance can bring upon all of us.
Review
“An elegiac and dirty and horribly beautiful examination of love and the lack of it; Ryckman has written the anti-love story within all of us. A book so earnest and sharp in its examination of heartbreak, it will make you ache for all the people you haven’t even loved yet.” T Kira Madden, No Tokens
Review
“A voyage into the timeless whorl of when you are obsessed with someone far away. A romantic wound that keeps reinventing itself. When you can’t look away from the car wreck of your own desire as you’re passing it by.” Mark Leidner, author of Under the Sea
Review
“Tatiana Ryckman has written a wonder; a remarkably accomplished work of such keen observation and emotional complexity as to rival those texts — Maggie Nelson’s Bluets come to mind — with which it shares some literary DNA. Vincent Scarpa, Kirkus Reviews
Review
“With the publication of I Don’t Think of You (Until I Do), Tatiana Ryckman has refused to join the long list of young writers afraid of saying something real, afraid of feeling something so deeply they might appear foolish. Instead she has joined the likes of Clarice Lispector, Claudia Rankine, and John Berger. Ryckman has written a book you will return to over and over, you will feel crushed by and then celebrated through, she has written a book we all should give (wrapped in fire) to our one true love.” Matthew Dickman, author of Mayakovsky’s Revolver
About the Author
Tatiana Ryckman was born in Cleveland, Ohio, and lives in Austin, Texas. She is also the author of two chapbooks of short prose, Twenty-Something and VHS and Why It’s Hard to Live. Tatiana’s work has appeared on Tin House’s The Open Bar, Barrelhouse, Opossum Lit, The Establishment, Nonbinary Review, Flavorwire, and many other publications. Tatiana has been an artist in residence at Yaddo and Arthub, and she is the Editor of Awst Press and Assistant Editor at sunnyoutside press. More info at tatianaryckman.com.