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4.21 AVERAGE
4.21 AVERAGE
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Joy Harjo writes beautifully, and this memoir is an engaging and accessible read. She doesn’t hold back from describing the abuse and trauma she experienced, so readers should be conscious that some heavy themes discussed in this story. This book has an important message about resilience and trusting yourself. I also appreciated how Joy’s story reflected her identity as an indigenous woman. She interwove her indigenous beliefs and perspective into her writing in a way that I haven’t seen done before.
I really liked this. It's short, well written, and is magical while real.
I saw glimpses of a touching, strong and good story, but the writing style was too overwrought for me to read. I skimmed hoping it would improve, but never did much. Some people will (and clearly do) enjoy the writing.
“I believe that if you do not answer the noise and urgency of your gifts, they will turn on you. Or drag you down with their immense sadness at being abandoned.”
Almost DNF this book as the beginning ~30% was WAY too fluid and dreamlike for me to be able to follow or even pay attention. The rest of the book was more straightforward but even so had various lucid tangents frequently thrown that made me happy to have finished the book.
Almost DNF this book as the beginning ~30% was WAY too fluid and dreamlike for me to be able to follow or even pay attention. The rest of the book was more straightforward but even so had various lucid tangents frequently thrown that made me happy to have finished the book.
challenging
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
I’m not super familiar with Joy Harjo’s poetry, but I love a memoir and this one was so good! The prose was extremely beautiful, a little hard to grasp at first but a very stunning and sad book.
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
The perfect pairing for By the Fire We Carry.
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
fast-paced
There were so many beautiful parts of this book about Joy Harjo’s life. Her writing is lyrical and beautiful. The book follows from before her birth (which lots of readers had an issue with but I can extend some poetic license here) to her early 20s. Harjo talks about a lot of hard issues- domestic violence, addiction, and self-destructive behaviors, I really loved the part of her story where she comes into her own and learns to stand for herself in her power. I struggled somewhat with the flow of the story, finding it disjointed and frustrating at times and I wanted her to progress further in her life and story. My biggest issue with the book though was the paranormal, magical, religious stuff. If this was a fiction book I could have let it go but for Harjo to say a boy had 3rd degree burns all over his body and she watched a shaman pray over him and then he was fine as if nothing happened it turns me off big time. It made me struggle to believe anything she had to say.
hopeful
informative
sad
tense
fast-paced
I love this memoir. I hope she comes out with Another. I had never heard of her work, but saw it in the library, and looked interesting. Glad I picked it up. She brings a true Native American spirit to the reader. I loved how she explained her dreams and interaction with the spirit world in true fashion. I also love how she didn't accentuate on the abuse she'd suffered, but focused so much more on her triumphs. Lastly, She vividly described an internal oppression that can be found here in OK among natives and other races. Great read!