196books's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Police brutality, and Racism
Moderate: Homophobia and Sexual assault
kell_xavi's review against another edition
5.0
I would like him to tell me if he thinks accomplishment is a peculiar outcome of the Black experience.
Kei Miller writes thoughtful, observant essays that take in the histories and politics of Jamaican and the Afro/Caribbean diaspora. These experiences collect into stories about family, queerness, violence, and identity, about home and about fear, about carnival and brutality, and about how we face events with our whole bodies and their whole histories of being.
I sorry for the histories that haunt all of us. I so sorry for all them things that we find difficult to face or to talk about because we wish they wasn’t real.
On traveling in Kenya: It is as if she is saying, but really, what kind of a mother is this who has taken this boy to be raised in another country but never taught him his mother tongue?… he cannot even speak to us… and I think, oh mame, if you just replace that word mother with history, then you would be correct. For really, what kind of history is this?
Kei Miller writes thoughtful, observant essays that take in the histories and politics of Jamaican and the Afro/Caribbean diaspora. These experiences collect into stories about family, queerness, violence, and identity, about home and about fear, about carnival and brutality, and about how we face events with our whole bodies and their whole histories of being.
I sorry for the histories that haunt all of us. I so sorry for all them things that we find difficult to face or to talk about because we wish they wasn’t real.
On traveling in Kenya: It is as if she is saying, but really, what kind of a mother is this who has taken this boy to be raised in another country but never taught him his mother tongue?… he cannot even speak to us… and I think, oh mame, if you just replace that word mother with history, then you would be correct. For really, what kind of history is this?
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism, Police brutality, and Homophobia
Moderate: Gun violence and Sexual assault
Minor: Pedophilia, Incest, Slavery, and Suicide
lettuce_read's review against another edition
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism, Police brutality, Fatphobia, and Homophobia
Moderate: Rape and Sexual assault
bookishcori's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
reflective
fast-paced
5.0
All the fucking stars. Phenomenal.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism and Homophobia
woolgatherer's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
This was a stunning essay collection to read and reflect on. I absolutely loved the way Miller drew attention to the multifaceted body (yet read as one-dimensional) and how his is read in different spaces in such a way that it made conscious of your own body. Whether it be in Jamaica (and there are many Jamaicas, as he points out, depending on what area you’re in), the United Kingdom, or Africa, Miller reflects on the way his Blackness, his queerness, his maleness, his upbringing, and so much more have a particular affect in his interactions with others. I also loved the way he approached each essay from different angles, all of which reveal what is written on the body. They were open letters, storytelling, personal anecdotes, and more.
Just beautifully and thoughtfully written.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism, Classism, Police brutality, Rape, and Homophobia
Moderate: Child abuse and Death
Minor: Adult/minor relationship
2treads's review against another edition
challenging
informative
reflective
5.0
"We write because there are always things we have withheld. We die because things have been withheld from us, which is to say, respect; which is to say, dignity; which is to say, love." -from the essay This Is How We Die
What will it take for the uncomfortable questions to be asked, for the true, raw answers to be given; that'll make the ones who asked and the ones who answered to really sit with all that question and answer truly means?
What will honesty cost us? Should it cost us? How will we move forward with each other after feeling as if a question, an answer, rubbed us raw and jangled our nerves; flipping the world upside down.
With this collection of essays, Miller is not only revealing parts of himself, making his vulnerabilities known, he is also exploring the many ways in which we hide ourselves to shield ourselves. Because when have we ever been truly free to express our pain and anger, our disappointments and expectations without the carefully constructed fount of racial stratification reminding us of lines we dare not forget are there.
The complexities that make our families, communities, and countries all impact us daily; rewarding and breaking down in equal measures, but always there is a call to act, whether in service to ourselves or others.
The body forms the central focus of these essays. The ways in which bodies propel/suppress conversations and reactions, how they can be bound or free, used/discarded, celebrated/denounced, stories told and hidden, power given/taken; how when we are attuned, all the small truths can be seen.
This is the time to be brave, weak, to speak without fear, to face what makes us uncomfortable, to voice our pain and hesitancy, to trace the maps that are our bodies so that we can truly come to know them. Because in knowing, we are freed.
What will it take for the uncomfortable questions to be asked, for the true, raw answers to be given; that'll make the ones who asked and the ones who answered to really sit with all that question and answer truly means?
What will honesty cost us? Should it cost us? How will we move forward with each other after feeling as if a question, an answer, rubbed us raw and jangled our nerves; flipping the world upside down.
With this collection of essays, Miller is not only revealing parts of himself, making his vulnerabilities known, he is also exploring the many ways in which we hide ourselves to shield ourselves. Because when have we ever been truly free to express our pain and anger, our disappointments and expectations without the carefully constructed fount of racial stratification reminding us of lines we dare not forget are there.
The complexities that make our families, communities, and countries all impact us daily; rewarding and breaking down in equal measures, but always there is a call to act, whether in service to ourselves or others.
The body forms the central focus of these essays. The ways in which bodies propel/suppress conversations and reactions, how they can be bound or free, used/discarded, celebrated/denounced, stories told and hidden, power given/taken; how when we are attuned, all the small truths can be seen.
This is the time to be brave, weak, to speak without fear, to face what makes us uncomfortable, to voice our pain and hesitancy, to trace the maps that are our bodies so that we can truly come to know them. Because in knowing, we are freed.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Racism and Homophobia
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