margot04's review against another edition
Wow! This is a super cool book - great mix of poetry, academia, personal history and fictional history. Sometimes the poetics of it detracted from my reading as I got a bit confused at what was actually being said, but overall really liked
lurchio2509's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
4.25
jerrica's review against another edition
5.0
Beautiful prose poetry about the heartbreak of wanting to know what has long ago been erased, of constructing a map to a place that may no longer exist, of trying to piece together something personal from what has been commodified.
regenherz's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
fast-paced
5.0
martehjelle's review against another edition
3.5
kinda confusing with it mostly being smaller disjointed stories within a larger perspective
katrinadalythompson's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
4.0
amaznmegan's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
pearamour's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
4.75
This is not a happy book - at times it is so devestating its hard to keep going but Dionne’s writing is so stunning. It feels uncomfortable sometimes to think of how beautiful the writing is when what she is saying is so deeply sad. Highly recommend to anyone reconsidering diaspora, rejecting the loss of our ancestry, and doing reconnecting/healing work
wanderingwavelength's review against another edition
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
slow-paced
4.5
maeveaickin's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
reflective
fast-paced
"He was someone in his own gesture, the thing that writers envy. It is clever and cold, edgy, and it belonged to him. To desire then, to read and translate, may also be to envy, to want to become. What is it that I wanted to pour myself into—his grief, his cold sweat, his life uncertain of its next step? And I wanted to do it only for the moment it took to put it on a page, to feel its texture, and then to run back quickly to my uncomplicated hotel room and my as-yet-uncomplicated page. To desire may also be to complicate."