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Reviews tagging 'Death'
Light in Gaza: Writings Born of Fire by Jehad Abusalim, Jennifer Bing, Mike Merryman-Lotze
7 reviews
yourbookishbff's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
hopeful
informative
reflective
sad
slow-paced
5.0
This anthology, compiled with support from the American Friends Service Committee, centers the voices and perspectives of Palestinians in and from Gaza as they reflect on the district's past and present while imagining its future. Published in 2022, many of the writers reference Israeli bombardment in 2014 and 2021, and it is a particularly harrowing experience to read their contributions now, in 2024, as Gaza is under far more deadly siege. Less than two years after his essay Gaza Asks: When Shall This Pass? was published in this anthology, poet and activist Refaat Alareer was killed in a strike that also killed his brother, brother's son, sister, and her three children. It's this stark contrast - the scale of death, displacement and structural devastation in today's Gaza and the cautious hope of Palestinians in 2021 and 2022 envisioning futures for another generation - that makes this anthology a challenging read.
While structured loosely around future visions of Gaza, the essays, poems and reflections range from highly academic to deeply personal, covering the lived environment and home construction, agrarian practices and the future of farming in historic Palestine, the use of AI in Israel's surveillance and oppression of Palestinians in Gaza, and so much more. The scale of creativity and resilience required for those living under military occupation and blockade is staggering - how do you build a home when you can't use concrete, how do you run a business when you don't have consistent access to electricity, how do you stock a library when you can't order books, how do you survive when arbitrary borders separate you from family, healthcare, employment, education and freedom? For those who've never experienced this level of surveillance and restricted movement - not to mention the constant threat of aerial attack, search and siezure, or imprisonment - the description of Gaza as the world's largest open-air prison takes shape into something visceral. By the time you get to the second-to-last essay, Let Me Dream, by Israa Mohammed Jamal, you begin to better understand the reality of multi-generational trauma and how it shapes those attempting to build lives in Gaza.
Another through-line in this anthology is Gaza's current population density and large refugee population. I hadn't realized that around 70% of those living in Gaza are refugees, and I appreciated how intentionally each contributor engages with the legacy and continuation of the Nakba in shaping Gaza's present and future.
I highly recommend this anthology to anyone interested in learning more about Gaza - its history, its present, and its people dreaming of survival. Thank you to Netgalley and Dreamscape Media for an advanced listener's copy - I'm grateful that this new audiobook recording will make this collection more accessible to readers.
While structured loosely around future visions of Gaza, the essays, poems and reflections range from highly academic to deeply personal, covering the lived environment and home construction, agrarian practices and the future of farming in historic Palestine, the use of AI in Israel's surveillance and oppression of Palestinians in Gaza, and so much more. The scale of creativity and resilience required for those living under military occupation and blockade is staggering - how do you build a home when you can't use concrete, how do you run a business when you don't have consistent access to electricity, how do you stock a library when you can't order books, how do you survive when arbitrary borders separate you from family, healthcare, employment, education and freedom? For those who've never experienced this level of surveillance and restricted movement - not to mention the constant threat of aerial attack, search and siezure, or imprisonment - the description of Gaza as the world's largest open-air prison takes shape into something visceral. By the time you get to the second-to-last essay, Let Me Dream, by Israa Mohammed Jamal, you begin to better understand the reality of multi-generational trauma and how it shapes those attempting to build lives in Gaza.
Another through-line in this anthology is Gaza's current population density and large refugee population. I hadn't realized that around 70% of those living in Gaza are refugees, and I appreciated how intentionally each contributor engages with the legacy and continuation of the Nakba in shaping Gaza's present and future.
I highly recommend this anthology to anyone interested in learning more about Gaza - its history, its present, and its people dreaming of survival. Thank you to Netgalley and Dreamscape Media for an advanced listener's copy - I'm grateful that this new audiobook recording will make this collection more accessible to readers.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder, War, Violence, and Colonisation
Moderate: Child death, Medical trauma, Suicidal thoughts, Death, and Medical content
Minor: Torture and Homophobia
alyssapusateri's review
challenging
informative
reflective
sad
slow-paced
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Genocide, War, and Death
Moderate: Death of parent, Medical trauma, Child death, Gun violence, and Police brutality
Minor: Suicidal thoughts and Alcohol
letsgolesbians's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
sad
tense
medium-paced
5.0
spent most of the last day of 2023 reading this wonderful book. i loved the format and layout of this book, a collection of prose, poetry, personal essays, and informational essays with a photo between each piece; my brain often feels like a pinball machine, fast and noisy and chaotic, and jumping from a poem to a photo to an essay to a photo to learning about architecture to a photo really worked for me.
any adjectives i try to use will fail to capture how i felt about this book—interesting, enraging, sad, empowering. all the words i think when i watch videos by bissan and motaz and hind every day. there are three pieces in particular i want to mention:
❤️ lost identity: the tale of peasantry and nature by asmaa abu mezied, about agrarian practices and place attachment. recommend for anyone who enjoyed braiding sweetgrass by robin wall kimmerer
🖤 exporting oranges and short stories: cultural struggle in the gaza strip, by mosab sbu toha, looking at books and literature, libraries, art, cinema, and other cultural works of palestine. recommend for readers, book fans, and people angry about book banning in the us
🤍 in the haze of fifty-one days by dorgham abusalim, a personal essay by a gay gazan man during the massacre summer of 2014
💚 and of course, i cannot write about this book without mentioning refaat alareer’s gaza asks: when shall this pass, may he rest in power
Content Warnings
Graphic: Homophobia, Colonisation, Racism, and Death
amberinpieces's review
hopeful
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
4.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Genocide, Grief, Confinement, and Bullying
Minor: Ableism
jare7d's review
challenging
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
5.0
A fantastic anthology to start understanding the history of Gaza and Palestine, I only knew a little bit about it's history before reading this book and everything was clear and educational. Some of these writings are heartbreaking but others are truly hopeful and inspiring. We need to continue to educate ourselves on what is happening in Gaza and support the Palestinians who are suffering under Israel's occupation and from the Nakba. Keep putting pressure on the occupiers to stop oppressing the occupied and to instead find a solution.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Genocide, Death, Colonisation, War, Death of parent, and Suicidal thoughts
thewordsdevourer's review
emotional
hopeful
informative
reflective
medium-paced
3.75
light in gaza offers a relevatory look into gaza, its history, present, future and inhabitants, both from inside the area and those in the diaspora. i esp appreciate how the authors of the various essays included in the book each focus on a different aspect of the occupation and resistance, examining the past and present with their implications, as well as imagining a better future.
while im not at all knowledgable abt certain topics explored - such AI and architecture - they are nevertheless enlightening and offer a truly unique, fresh perspective. i also particularly enjoy learning abt the deep bond between palestinians and their land thru peasantry, and the importance of humanitarianism that instead focuses on liberation and return. this is def a collection to be read and learned from, straight from palestinians themselves.
while im not at all knowledgable abt certain topics explored - such AI and architecture - they are nevertheless enlightening and offer a truly unique, fresh perspective. i also particularly enjoy learning abt the deep bond between palestinians and their land thru peasantry, and the importance of humanitarianism that instead focuses on liberation and return. this is def a collection to be read and learned from, straight from palestinians themselves.
Content Warnings
Graphic: War, Violence, Police brutality, Colonisation, Racism, and Islamophobia
Moderate: Death, Murder, Genocide, Mental illness, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, and Child death
literary_hazelnut's review
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Grief, Death, Colonisation, and Genocide
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