CITIZEN: AN AMERICAN LYRIC by CLAUDIA RANKINE

“I feel most colored when I am thrown against a sharp white background.”

This book is categorised as a collection of poems but to me it transcends genre. It is a collection of observations; some in the form of actual works of art, photographs, and digital prints. Some is in the form of facts. And some is in the form of language manipulation; poetry.

Within these pages is exasperation and disappointment at the treatment received by this narrator - who is black - and by other black people, some in the public eye by choice, like Serena Williams, and some in the public eye because of police brutality. What Rankine documents here are heartbreaking accounts of her daily life. How people will move away from her, second guess her ability and intelligence and generally say offensive and stupid shit.

At the beginning of this collection, I was horrified to read of this treatment in more plain terms, and as the book progresses, it becomes more and more abstract, but no less painful or infuriating to read.

The messages are weighty and pack a punch, but the narrator seems quiet and unassuming, perhaps to add to the themes of the book.

Comments

ANOTHER BROOKLYN by JACQUELINE WOODSON

ANOTHER BROOKLYN by JACQUELINE WOODSON I read this book in the space of a few hours and as soon as I finished I turned back to the first page again. I didn’t read it all again - just that first page and it worked. It’s a cyclical book. It doesn’t need to be read in any particular order. Memories manifest in any way they want to. This book is a series of memories told from the point of view of August; a teenager growing up in Brooklyn in the 1970s. She states early on in the book that life would have been different if she’d known about jazz, but all she knew of was the top 40 (white artists mostly). And “it never quite figured us out.” I found that one statement to be huge! It’s a 170 page novel, but that statement to me felt bigger than the messages I’ve taken from 1000 page novels. If we can’t see ourselves represented, how can we see ourselves at all? My own white privilege means that this is something I rarely have to think about, but this book helped me to understand how that...

BONJOUR TRISTESSE / A CERTAIN SMILE by FRACOISE SAGAN

BONJOUR TRISTESSE by FRACOISE SAGAN French Literature at its finest. There are actually two novels in this book and Bonjour Tristesse is the first and that is the one I’ll review first. The novella (100 pages) takes place over a summer on the French Riviera. Cecile and her father have rented the villa for two months to escape from the heat of Paris. Her widowed father brings with him his young and beautiful mistress, but then another guest turns up... The star of this book, though, is the setting. The French Riviera. The beach. The glistening ocean. The sailing. The sex. The sun. The wine. The cigarettes. The sadness that only comes with being seventeen and in love, or not in love. I just can’t get over the fact that the author was 18 when she wrote this. A CERTAIN SMILE by FRACOISE SAGAN Well, well, well, I had no idea that I could love the second novella more than the first. What an exquisite story. I felt like I was reading a French Sally Rooney. It is very much like Conversati...

THE GRAVITY OF US by PHIL STAMPER

THE GRAVITY OF US by PHIL STAMPER Pretty much all I need to hear to know that I’m going to love a book are the words: queer love story. I do wish I’d listened a bit harder because this one is also about space travel - not the most interesting topic in the world (or out of it) for me. Regardless of that, I did enjoy this book. It’s lighthearted and young but it still managed to cover some serious issues including mental health. I appreciated the honesty of the characters and the cute love story and this is definitely a book I would be happy to recommend to any of my teenage students, but for me it was a little too spacey and a little too young. It’s not this wonderful book’s fault; I’m just not the target audience! I still love Leon, though ❤️

Libby's Bookshelf

Search This Blog