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wchereads's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
funny
sad
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
“Don’t you ever, ever, in your life, umrik, ever, ever… ever forget us.”
I will never emotionally recover from this
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, and Physical abuse
Moderate: Cursing, Sexual content, Sexual violence, and War
Minor: Child death and Pedophilia
letsgolesbians's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
a map of home is a coming-of-age story traversing the united states, kuwait, and egypt and follows nadali through her childhood and teen years. nadali’s mother is egyptian and greek, her father palestinian, and home is a moving concept. most of the story is written in standard prose, and as nadali’s self-exploration in her teens grows the chapters move into different formats, including a list (my favorite literary device).
i used a gift card to order this and blood orange a couple of weeks ago when i could feel myself sliding into depression, because i wanted some queer palestinian reads—nadali is bisexual. i absolutely loved randa jarrar’s writing in a map of home and immediately put library holds on her other books.
“i looked up at the horizon expecting a straight line and instead found a wrap-around horizon like a semi-circle. i thought of the semi-circles beneath my eyes, how they swelled out like every other woman's in my family. i thought about all the main events of my family history and discovered that they were all wars. i imagined my family history without war. my grandmother would not have lost her father in the first war in palestine and would not have been sold to the family through whom she met my father's father. my yia yia would not have met my geddo had it not been for world war II and that dress-up orphanage. i wondered how many wars waited in my future, and if
children—if i had any—would be products of them.“
free palestine. end the occupation.
TWs
colonization, gaslighting, physical abuse, rape, war
photo review: https://www.instagram.com/p/C4JM8FfvX9f/?igsh=NzBmMjdhZWRiYQ==
photo review: https://www.instagram.com/p/C4JM8FfvX9f/?igsh=NzBmMjdhZWRiYQ==
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Misogyny, Rape, Sexual assault, Colonisation, and War
nannahnannah's review against another edition
4.0
I had no idea what to expect when I picked this out from the library. It was simply something on my list, and something on my 2018 reading challenge. But it literally ended up changing my outlook on a lot of things, and though sometimes it was difficult to read based on traumatic events in my own childhood (why don't books have content warnings the way movies & video games do?), it left me feeling contented and warm-bellied the way eating a comfort meal does.
A Map of Home is the story of Nidali, daughter of an Egyptian-Greek mother and a Palestinian father and the life she had growing up in Kuwait, Egypt, and then finally the US (in Texas, of all places). It's, as the goodreads summary says, "a loving portrait of [her] eccentric middle-class family", and eccentric at times seems like an understatement.
But "loving portrait" ... it hardly gets more spot-on than that. The book is touching, heart-breaking, and even funny, too, and sometimes simultaneously.
I don't have much else to say, because it's just written very well; I can't believe this is a debut. I learned a lot from this book, too, but that's a bit personal, and I don't want to go 1). "NSFW", and 2). into personal things from my childhood that doesn't matter to anyone reading this. But Randa Jarrar definitely has a talent for describing personal things in a way other people haven't before -- I've never connected to characters and experiences before like I have here.
Even saying all this, I've still given this book four stars instead of five just because of personal taste, and for the fact that I'm not sure I'd like to read this again, if that makes sense.
A Map of Home is the story of Nidali, daughter of an Egyptian-Greek mother and a Palestinian father and the life she had growing up in Kuwait, Egypt, and then finally the US (in Texas, of all places). It's, as the goodreads summary says, "a loving portrait of [her] eccentric middle-class family", and eccentric at times seems like an understatement.
But "loving portrait" ... it hardly gets more spot-on than that. The book is touching, heart-breaking, and even funny, too, and sometimes simultaneously.
I don't have much else to say, because it's just written very well; I can't believe this is a debut. I learned a lot from this book, too, but that's a bit personal, and I don't want to go 1). "NSFW", and 2). into personal things from my childhood that doesn't matter to anyone reading this. But Randa Jarrar definitely has a talent for describing personal things in a way other people haven't before -- I've never connected to characters and experiences before like I have here.
Even saying all this, I've still given this book four stars instead of five just because of personal taste, and for the fact that I'm not sure I'd like to read this again, if that makes sense.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, and Rape
magneto's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Minor: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, and War
internationalreads's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
informative
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual content, Violence, and Death of parent
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