"Another field-changing work from a defining thinker in the field of critical food studies, this irresistible study exhibits all of Tompkins' trademark intelligence: dazzling critical rigor wrapped up in an idiosyncratic but yet also clear and urgent conceptual framework, steeped in immaculate historical research, and flavored with meticulous close readings. A must read." (Anne Cheng, Princeton University) "In this stunning, profoundly defamiliarizing book, Kyla Tompkins reconsiders lively states of materiality that transgress boundaries. Everyday acts of eating things that infiltrate, grow by decaying, flourish through death, or slither as if by their own energy, Tompkins argues, incorporate aesthetic state violence as well as potential for minoritarian collectivity, ferment, and joy. Read this astute, playful, insurgent book. You'll never look at jelly the same way again." (Robin Bernstein, Harvard University) "Ultimately, this book is about how people in subaltern communities are resistant to attempts of definition, categorization, and control... fascinating and thought-provoking." (Library Journal) "Following the cultural life of matter, its energetic capacities (both literal and metaphorical), and its policing by the state, Tompkins' argument moves swiftly, even vertiginously between scales of analysis. At times while reading Deviant Matter, I felt like Alice drinking and eating in Wonderland, now tiny and in the next moment telescoping to the vast." (Transatlantica)
