katharina90's review against another edition
5.0
Favorites include:
-American Arithmetic
-If I Should Come Upon Your House Lonely in the West Texas Desert
-Top Ten Reasons Why Indians Are Good at Basketball
-exhibits from The American Water Museum
"I have a name, yet no one who will say it not roughly.
I am your Native,
and this is my American labyrinth.
Here I am, at your thighs—lilac-lit pools of ablution.
Take my body and make of it—
a Nation, a confession.
Through you even I can be clean."
From: I, Minotaur
"2.
Because a long time ago, Creator gave us a choice: You can write like an Indian god, or you can have a jump shot sweeter than a 44oz. can of government grape juice—one or the other. Everyone but Sherman Alexie chose the jump shot."
From: Top Ten Reasons Why Indians Are Good at Basketball
"Only water can change water, can heal itself. Not even God
made water. Not on any of the seven days. It was already here.
Or maybe God is water, because I am water, and you are water."
From: exhibits from The American Water Museum
"Art of Fact:
Let me tell you a story about water:
Once upon a time there was us.
America’s thirst tried to drink us away.
And here we still are."
From: exhibits from The American Water Museum
"Police kill Native Americans more
than any other race. Race is a funny word.
Race implies someone will win,
implies, I have as good a chance of winning as—
Who wins the race that isn’t a race?
Native Americans make up 1.9 percent of all police killings, higher per capita than any race—
sometimes race means run."
From: American Arithmetic
"At the National Museum of the American Indian,
68 percent of the collection is from the United States.
I am doing my best to not become a museum
of myself. I am doing my best to breathe in and out.
I am begging: Let me be lonely but not invisible."
From: American Arithmetic
Moderate: Colonisation, Racism, Violence, and Police brutality
Minor: Sexual content and Mental illness
jessereadsthings's review against another edition
4.0
Graphic: Genocide, Colonisation, Racism, and Police brutality
dacha's review against another edition
4.5
Graphic: Racism and Colonisation
Moderate: Gun violence, Police brutality, and Addiction
readingbrb's review against another edition
5.0
Moderate: Racism
Minor: Addiction and Drug use
becksusername's review against another edition
4.0
Minor: Racism, Death, Genocide, Grief, Police brutality, and Trafficking
mandkips's review against another edition
4.25
Graphic: Violence, Blood, and Racism
Moderate: Addiction, Gun violence, and Sexual content
Minor: Colonisation, Genocide, and Death
lowbrowhighart's review against another edition
4.5
Graphic: Misogyny, Violence, Racism, and Blood
Moderate: Death, Sexual content, Addiction, Gun violence, Mental illness, Genocide, Colonisation, War, and Self harm
bethread's review against another edition
3.5
Graphic: Colonisation, Violence, and Racism
gabbygarcia's review against another edition
4.25
This is my knee, since she touches me there.
This is my throat, as defined by her reaching.
This collection is something really special. It’s not immediately accessible, but once you peel back the layers of each poem (scrolling through the dictionary a few times…), it’s so worth the work. Some favorites of mine include “Manhattan is a Lenape Word”, “American Arithmetic”, “They Don’t Love You Like I Love You”, “The First Body Is The Water”, “exhibits from The American Water Museum”, and “Isn’t the Air Also a Body, Moving?”. Too many favorites! I love the way she writes about water, light, language, and the body. I love how she connects the poems to one another through vocabulary and metaphor. Absolutely excellent and stunning.
Minor: Blood, Colonisation, Death, Genocide, Gore, Grief, Hate crime, Murder, Racism, Sexual content, and Violence
gay's review against another edition
3.5
Moderate: Gun violence and Racism
Minor: Police brutality