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3.76 AVERAGE
3.76 AVERAGE
emotional
hopeful
sad
medium-paced
challenging
emotional
hopeful
reflective
fast-paced
Read as part of a reading challenge, and no regrets picking up this one. I don’t normally enjoy memoirs or poetry, but this one was a fast paced read. There is likely much more to her story than is in this book, but it tells the snippet of life that she and many others had as part of the “stolen generation”.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Addiction, Drug abuse, Racism, Rape, Toxic relationship
A fantastic and heart wrenching memoir in poetry and prose. Read to gain some perspectives on the trauma of the Stolen Generation, and how much work needs to be done to heal the fissures we've inherited and caused. Decolonisation is more than an academic word, its a process we're all accountable for on stolen land.
Too Afraid to Cry by Ali Cobby Eckermann is a memoir from an Aboriginal woman in Australia as she battles drugs and alcohol, reunites with her own and her extended kin family after growing up with white farmers as part of the Stolen Generation of adoptees. She finds her creative side in art and writing and works in various jobs, including an art centre as she realizes her creative gifts. The blunt prose tell a captivating story in chapters alternating with verse,and highlight her deep attachment to the natural world and ancestral relationships as she learns their indigenous ways. It was completely absorbing.
Ugh. I really hate to be giving this a low rating. But I was really disappointed by this, honestly. The writing is completely unemotional --Ali simply tells all the events that happened in chronological order. Very rarely did she offer an opinion or some larger context. Very rarely did she mention her emotions--and with a title like that, I needed the emotions.
And, I am trying to think about this carefully because I don't want to be a white person exoticising another culture, but I really wanted to know more about the Aboriginal people. I wanted to hear about how it was to find her family and what culture she was learning from them, what was different, what made it special, etcetera. It was really disappointing that I got simply the overlying plot arc.
Aaaandat the end it turns out that her family hadn't put her up for adoption, which is completely glossed over. Was she angry? Did she ask questions? Did she look to find out more? Am I missing some greater context, having lived in the States for ten years? This shocking piece was just glossed over.
The poetry was the strongest point.
And, I am trying to think about this carefully because I don't want to be a white person exoticising another culture, but I really wanted to know more about the Aboriginal people. I wanted to hear about how it was to find her family and what culture she was learning from them, what was different, what made it special, etcetera. It was really disappointing that I got simply the overlying plot arc.
Aaaand
The poetry was the strongest point.