Due to a sudden, unexpected passing in the family a few years ago and another more recently and my subsequent (mental) health issues stemming from that, I was unable to download this book in time to review it before it was archived as I did not visit this site for several years after the bereavements. This meant I didn't read or venture onto netgalley for years as not only did it remind me of that person as they shared my passion for reading, but I also struggled to maintain interest in anything due to overwhelming depression. I was therefore unable to download this title in time and so I couldn't give a review as it wasn't successfully acquired before it was archived. The second issue that has happened with some of my other books is that I had them downloaded to one particular device and said device is now defunct, so I have no access to those books anymore, sadly.

This means I can't leave an accurate reflection of my feelings towards the book as I am unable to read it now and so I am leaving a message of explanation instead. I am now back to reading and reviewing full time as once considerable time had passed I have found that books have been helping me significantly in terms of my mindset and mental health - this was after having no interest in anything for quite a number of years after the passings. Anything requested and approved will be read and a review written and posted to Amazon (where I am a Hall of Famer & Top Reviewer), Goodreads (where I have several thousand friends and the same amount who follow my reviews) and Waterstones (or Barnes & Noble if the publisher is American based). Thank you for the opportunity and apologies for the inconvenience.

This book was sent to me as an ARC on NetGalley. However all opinions are of my own.
A World Out Of Reach is a real eye-opener of situations Happening through Covid. It was a pile of stories from various people explaining how they were dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic. I think this book could make you feel quite sad if you’re already feeling quite low, however I do feel like it has shared some perspective on other peoples feelings and opinions regarding COVID-19.

Many voices speaking out about the COVID-19 pandemic and how it has affected so many lives. From New York to Africa, the fallout from this global pandemic is well documented and presented.

A World Out of Reach, Dispatches from Life under Lockdown is a collection - or "compendium" as described by the editor - of pieces dedicated to the apocalyptic spring of 2020 borne down by COVID-19. A multitude of voices (poets, essayists, scholars, health care workers, students) share a piece each, all revolving around the coronavirus theme. ⁠
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Ranging from matters of social policy and justice to history and personal stories of life under lockdown, this compilation by Yale Review presents an important record about one of the most turbulent periods in recent history. ⁠
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It was infuriating to read Russell Morse's piece 'The Jail Crisis', where he narrates his experience of trying to protect especially vulnerable people with underlying health conditions to get out of Rikers Island, New York City, the most overcrowded correctional facility where no measures were being taken to protect the incarcerated. Those that managed to get a temporary release didn't fare much better either, facing no prospects of getting social benefits, healthcare or roof above their heads, ending up homeless.⁠
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There are several accounts by healthcare workers that recount the chilling reality of operating hospitals with no protective gear and dead bodies piling up in front of buildings, after having run of space of storing them.⁠
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Numerous pieces focused on what the pandemic harshly revealed to us: the vast inequalities in our society that saw poor people and people of colour taking the biggest hit. There was a mention of the 'favelas' in Brazil where people have no access to basic sanitation and live cramped together. ⁠
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In 'Get the Shovel', Kathryn Lofton investigates the effects of not having a chance to bury our dead like they deserve. Professor Millicent Marcus shares her newfound appreciation of Giovanni Boccaccio's Decameron that deals with the Black Death in Florence in 1348 - a book she's been teaching for quite a while, but could not identify with until now. ⁠
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There is an incredible piece by Rachel Jamison Webster, a sad, poignant and beautifully written tribute about her aunt's death from COVID-19. ⁠

A World Out of Reach is a book about the pandemic, which I assume many will be reluctant to read until they're ready, seeing as we're still deep down into survival mode. For those that are reading about the coronavirus online anxiously, I suggest turning to this instead: it might offer the perspective you crave.

Thanks to Yale University Press and @netgalley for my advanced digital copy.

#AWorldOutOfReach #NetGalley

Living through a pandemic flattens the mind. Perspective seems impossible yet perspective is exactly what a writer's mind demands. For that reason I've taken care over the last six months to read any Covid-19 journals/snippets, and in particular a few "in the thick of it" anthologies. Typically they have involved writers scribing what they experience or intuit, and I appreciate such efforts, but "A World Out of Reach: Dispatches from Life under Lockdown" offers not only writers/poets but also healthcare frontline professionals, social commentators, journalists, and even politicians. Released regularly in The Yale Review over March to June, it mixes the quotidian with the profound, to the benefit of both. I wept at Rachel Jamison Webster's ode to her aunt, I ground my teeth during Black Lives Matters essays and one on a prison population, and I gasped at the immediacy and dread of hearing about doctors hunting for PPE. A World Out of Reach is not always comforting reading but it feels essential.

A very good idea -- getting a rich variety of writers to weigh in on the early days of Corona -- well delivered and edited. Essays, stories and poems, these pieces capture the shock, the sadness, the discontinuity, the utter strangeness of life during the pandemic. As Meghan O'Rourke writes in her introduction, historians and sociologists will study the pandemic for years, but right now there is a benefit in capturing the confusion and bewilderment that came in the first stage. My favorite story was by Rachel Jamison Webster, a truly stunning piece of writing, about a relative with a tale to tell. Many other jewels in here, too.