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emmacolon's review against another edition
cherríe moraga is truly a genius in queer chicana feminist thought and it was such a pleasure to get to read her memoir. i can’t even tell you the amount of times i cried while reading this. it’s about alzheimers, the fuerza + strain of latinidad in the US, losing personal and cultural memory, and the experience of being a lesbian daughter. so heart-wrenching and honest. it was exactly the story i needed.
campo's review against another edition
5.0
I almost can't believe I found this book. I've never felt so seen. I'm so grateful for this invitation into Moraga's journey with ancestors, spirit, queerness, mestizaje, dementia care, and family. I wonder how I'll tell my story
siria's review against another edition
4.0
A heartfelt book and an often painful read, Cherríe Moraga's Native Country of the Heart is a memoir both of the author's mother Elvira, of mother and daughter's relationship, and of the slow loss of Elvira to dementia. As the narrative moves back and forth between Moraga's pain and grief at her mother's present illness, and their often difficult relationship during Moraga's youth, Moraga also grapples with issues of identity, indigeneity, sexuality, and colonialism. While her mother was Mexican-American of indigenous descent, Moraga's father (whose last name she stopped using as a young woman) was a white man, and Moraga herself is a lesbian.
One of my own grandmothers died of Alzheimer's disease, a long and awful process of dying for her which was terrible to observe and which amplified existing familial fractures. I found reading the parts of the book which dealt with the last stage of Elvira's life both very familiar and impossibly painful. Moraga's prose powerfully captures Elvira's personality, though with a number of stylistic tics that I found irritating. (For example: italicising the prepositions in a sentence does not automatically make it more profound or meaningful.)
One of my own grandmothers died of Alzheimer's disease, a long and awful process of dying for her which was terrible to observe and which amplified existing familial fractures. I found reading the parts of the book which dealt with the last stage of Elvira's life both very familiar and impossibly painful. Moraga's prose powerfully captures Elvira's personality, though with a number of stylistic tics that I found irritating. (For example: italicising the prepositions in a sentence does not automatically make it more profound or meaningful.)
deltani's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
reflective
relaxing
tense
medium-paced
4.5
gabriellejane's review against another edition
reflective
medium-paced
NR for memoirs!
I loved reading this memoir told through Moraga's mother and her own coming-of-age. I started with the audio, but found that I retained more information through reading the physical copy. If you love memoirs, I would recommend pick this one up!
I loved reading this memoir told through Moraga's mother and her own coming-of-age. I started with the audio, but found that I retained more information through reading the physical copy. If you love memoirs, I would recommend pick this one up!