clemrain's review
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
slow-paced
5.0
Brand has an amazing grasp of language. She wields it poem to poem and stanza to stanza. And for a book about language, it was necessary.
The gradual and exponential shift of a child, an immigrant, to a speaker to a craftsman of language is eloquent in this collection.
The topics tie well together with the use of colour and idea. The theme is strong, and is effectively communicated through words and structure.
The poems are experimental and interesting. And I liked the division of them.
I’ll be thinking of the poems here. And definitely rereading them.
The gradual and exponential shift of a child, an immigrant, to a speaker to a craftsman of language is eloquent in this collection.
The topics tie well together with the use of colour and idea. The theme is strong, and is effectively communicated through words and structure.
The poems are experimental and interesting. And I liked the division of them.
I’ll be thinking of the poems here. And definitely rereading them.
raulbime's review
5.0
I have come to know something simple. Each sentence realised or dreamed jumps like a pulse with history and takes a side. What I say in any language is told in faultless knowledge of skin, in drunkenness and weeping, told as a woman without matches or tinder, not in words and in words and in words learned by heart, told in secret and not in secret, and listen, does not burn out or waste and is plenty and pitiless and loves.
I came to hear, or more like overhear, of Brand through a conversation some friends were having and she is more wonderful than their words praised her to be. Such words, such words. Brilliant, sparkling words and the journeys they led me to. Wonderful.
I came to hear, or more like overhear, of Brand through a conversation some friends were having and she is more wonderful than their words praised her to be. Such words, such words. Brilliant, sparkling words and the journeys they led me to. Wonderful.
arsenic_'s review
challenging
emotional
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
4.75
Content Warnings
Minor: Racism and Misogyny
elizabethlk's review
4.0
No Language is Neutral is my first time reading Dionne Brand, but it won't be my last. The way she looks at Blackness and sexuality was powerful to read, and even though not all of her form was to my personal taste, it was still lovely to behold. The sections Return and Hard Against the Soul (the second section of that one) were my absolute favourites and held me enthralled. Definitely recommended.