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Esse Cabelo: a tragicomédia de um cabelo crespo que cruza fronteiras by Djaimilia Pereira de Almeida
brittdbean's review against another edition
2.0
Honestly this book just didn't land for me. I think I might be missing a cultural aspect of the book. Maybe there was some thing lost in translation. There was a weird disconnect and it took so long to end. It could have easily been a novella or a think-piece on medium.
erinsbookshelves's review against another edition
challenging
reflective
slow-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
3.5
arisbookcorner's review against another edition
challenging
funny
informative
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
"The truth is that the story of my curly hair intersects with the story of at least two countries and, by extension, the underlying story of the relations among several continents: a geopolitics." (2)
The stream of consciousness narrative did make it hard for me to finish, it's tough to keep up with the constant train of thought narration. The narrative seems to wander and this is definitely a character driven novel because there's not even a semblance of plot. Additionally some aspects of the story remain unclear, the sometimes confusing narration and lack of detail don't help make it any less opaque, it was only after reading several reviews that I figured out (for example) which side of her family was Portuguese and which side was Angolan. Her mother appears to have remained in Angola and it's unclear why she was sent to Lisbon without her parents in the first place. This didn't ruin my ability to appreciate the novel but it was a nagging thought in the back of my mind for much of the story. But what kept me going was the beautiful, lyrical and complex sentences that managed to distill questions of identity and postcolonialism into thoughtful dispatches on hair. I was skeptical that the metaphor would hold throughout the novel but it absolutely does. Mila's musings on hair turn into her pondering thoughtful, and sometimes thorny, questions of family, identity and Portuguese history. But even the descriptions of hair and hair politics had me laughing or sadly nodding my head in agreement and self recognition, "It occurs to me that I never shared what I did for a living with any of my hairdressers. I never made the effort to explain my occupation to them, as though they were incapable of understanding. While they did my hair, I spoke little of myself, as the years stretched on, less for a lack of patience than a bashfulness inflamed by the all-too-human atmosphere of the salons." (122). This is something that is often unsaid but I think is super real for some Black women (myself included) once they reach a certain social class.
I believe this book would qualify as autofiction, it seems heavily autobiographical and the protagonist's name is similar to the author's (I don't believe it's ever said that Mila is a nickname for Djamila so I don't want to assertively state the similarity). And because of that fact at times the narrator seems to steer us towards questioning their reliability, sometimes due to faulty memory and other times to avoid thinking about their own complicity or shameful behavior. As she struggles with questions of identity as a biracial woman, one whose heritage comes from both the colonial "power" and the colonized, Mila has a brutal realization about internalized anti-Blackness while looking at the famous Little Rock photo of Elizabeth Eckford. “I see now that I am the persecuted and the persecutor, the disfigured, disfiguring myself. This image captures the supremacist in me, the tormentor's essence that ruins my days, as much as there's nothing or no one to attack me or who has attacked me except myself; the supremacist implicit in the reticent, wounded timidity of so many headfuls of wiry hair that I encounter around Lisbon, a timidity much more justified than mine because, all things considered, all forms of timidity were in my case always a natural privilege and not a reaction to circumstance . [...] The raging girls in the photo are the nervous tremor (which brings me shame) when a black man on the streetcar answers the phone, speaking loudly. ‘Shhh: pipe down,’ they say to me, I say to him, I say to myself. ‘Can’t you see the others?’” (97-99). That passage is DEVASTATING and I read it several times marveling at the many truths contained therein especially concerning internalized racism. There is also a strong sense of place from Oeiras to Luanda throughout the novel. Maybe that's natural for translated fiction but I still appreciated that I walked away with more of an understanding of Portuguese history and culture (and I felt that way even before visiting Lisbon).
THAT HAIR is an astounding work of autofiction that combines ruminations on the politics of hair with the politics of (biracial) identity from a Portuguese and Angolan perspective. It's a novel but also sometimes seems like a collection of essays that explores family history, feminism, memory and postcolonialism. While it the stream of consciousness and meandering sentence structure can make it hard to stay fully focused on the text the writing style is emotional and rhythmic. This was my first non Spanish translation read and it set the bar pretty high. I can't judge the translation itself but I understood the story and loved the writing which feels like enough for a beginner to translated fiction.
Some other outstanding quotes;
"I come from generations of lunatics, which is perhaps a sign that what takes place inside the heads of my ancestors is more important than what goes on around them." (4)
"For as long as I can remember, I've woken up with a rebellious mane, so often at odds with my journey, no sign of the headscarves recommended for covering one's hair while sleeping. To say that I wake up with a lion's mane out of carelessness is to say that I wake up every day with at least a modicum of embarrassment or a motive to laugh at myself in the mirror: a motive accompanied by impatience and at times, rage." (5-6)
"Though it's hard to admit, the enviable environment of equality in which I had the good fortune to be educated in Portugal kept me from something important that I'm now trying to remember: a clear notion of the differences that separate me from those among whom I happened to grow up, those who were, in fact, the people who taught me to notice the significance of the differences whose absence I regret." (84)
"Visiting salons has been a way of visiting countries and learning to distinguish the features and manners of each, giving new fuel to prejudices. Senegal is a pair of moisturized hands; Angola a certain casualness, a brutal grace; Zaire a disaster; Portugal a burn from a hair dryer, the flesh wound left by a brush."
“To my great chagrin, it’s not acceptable to tell the border patrol that my country of origin is my grandmother’s hair.”
The stream of consciousness narrative did make it hard for me to finish, it's tough to keep up with the constant train of thought narration. The narrative seems to wander and this is definitely a character driven novel because there's not even a semblance of plot. Additionally some aspects of the story remain unclear, the sometimes confusing narration and lack of detail don't help make it any less opaque, it was only after reading several reviews that I figured out (for example) which side of her family was Portuguese and which side was Angolan. Her mother appears to have remained in Angola and it's unclear why she was sent to Lisbon without her parents in the first place. This didn't ruin my ability to appreciate the novel but it was a nagging thought in the back of my mind for much of the story. But what kept me going was the beautiful, lyrical and complex sentences that managed to distill questions of identity and postcolonialism into thoughtful dispatches on hair. I was skeptical that the metaphor would hold throughout the novel but it absolutely does. Mila's musings on hair turn into her pondering thoughtful, and sometimes thorny, questions of family, identity and Portuguese history. But even the descriptions of hair and hair politics had me laughing or sadly nodding my head in agreement and self recognition, "It occurs to me that I never shared what I did for a living with any of my hairdressers. I never made the effort to explain my occupation to them, as though they were incapable of understanding. While they did my hair, I spoke little of myself, as the years stretched on, less for a lack of patience than a bashfulness inflamed by the all-too-human atmosphere of the salons." (122). This is something that is often unsaid but I think is super real for some Black women (myself included) once they reach a certain social class.
I believe this book would qualify as autofiction, it seems heavily autobiographical and the protagonist's name is similar to the author's (I don't believe it's ever said that Mila is a nickname for Djamila so I don't want to assertively state the similarity). And because of that fact at times the narrator seems to steer us towards questioning their reliability, sometimes due to faulty memory and other times to avoid thinking about their own complicity or shameful behavior. As she struggles with questions of identity as a biracial woman, one whose heritage comes from both the colonial "power" and the colonized, Mila has a brutal realization about internalized anti-Blackness while looking at the famous Little Rock photo of Elizabeth Eckford. “I see now that I am the persecuted and the persecutor, the disfigured, disfiguring myself. This image captures the supremacist in me, the tormentor's essence that ruins my days, as much as there's nothing or no one to attack me or who has attacked me except myself; the supremacist implicit in the reticent, wounded timidity of so many headfuls of wiry hair that I encounter around Lisbon, a timidity much more justified than mine because, all things considered, all forms of timidity were in my case always a natural privilege and not a reaction to circumstance . [...] The raging girls in the photo are the nervous tremor (which brings me shame) when a black man on the streetcar answers the phone, speaking loudly. ‘Shhh: pipe down,’ they say to me, I say to him, I say to myself. ‘Can’t you see the others?’” (97-99). That passage is DEVASTATING and I read it several times marveling at the many truths contained therein especially concerning internalized racism. There is also a strong sense of place from Oeiras to Luanda throughout the novel. Maybe that's natural for translated fiction but I still appreciated that I walked away with more of an understanding of Portuguese history and culture (and I felt that way even before visiting Lisbon).
THAT HAIR is an astounding work of autofiction that combines ruminations on the politics of hair with the politics of (biracial) identity from a Portuguese and Angolan perspective. It's a novel but also sometimes seems like a collection of essays that explores family history, feminism, memory and postcolonialism. While it the stream of consciousness and meandering sentence structure can make it hard to stay fully focused on the text the writing style is emotional and rhythmic. This was my first non Spanish translation read and it set the bar pretty high. I can't judge the translation itself but I understood the story and loved the writing which feels like enough for a beginner to translated fiction.
Some other outstanding quotes;
"I come from generations of lunatics, which is perhaps a sign that what takes place inside the heads of my ancestors is more important than what goes on around them." (4)
"For as long as I can remember, I've woken up with a rebellious mane, so often at odds with my journey, no sign of the headscarves recommended for covering one's hair while sleeping. To say that I wake up with a lion's mane out of carelessness is to say that I wake up every day with at least a modicum of embarrassment or a motive to laugh at myself in the mirror: a motive accompanied by impatience and at times, rage." (5-6)
"Though it's hard to admit, the enviable environment of equality in which I had the good fortune to be educated in Portugal kept me from something important that I'm now trying to remember: a clear notion of the differences that separate me from those among whom I happened to grow up, those who were, in fact, the people who taught me to notice the significance of the differences whose absence I regret." (84)
"Visiting salons has been a way of visiting countries and learning to distinguish the features and manners of each, giving new fuel to prejudices. Senegal is a pair of moisturized hands; Angola a certain casualness, a brutal grace; Zaire a disaster; Portugal a burn from a hair dryer, the flesh wound left by a brush."
“To my great chagrin, it’s not acceptable to tell the border patrol that my country of origin is my grandmother’s hair.”
naju's review against another edition
erro meu, achei que estivesse traduzido pro português brasileiro e não estava... acabei não entendendo nada
raisinglebarre's review against another edition
3.0
Beautifully written novel that tackles intersectionality from a point of view we don't see enough of.
I appreciated getting to learn more about colorism outside of the US and the perspective of how Black hair is seen in other cultures.
I appreciated getting to learn more about colorism outside of the US and the perspective of how Black hair is seen in other cultures.
cdemi12's review against another edition
challenging
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
The book was a short read, but it felt more laborious than I expected. I like that the story centers around how her hair ties into her two identities and her memories of growing up biracial in Europe. And while the translation is beautifully done, the medium through which the story is told never caught me. It feels a bit disjointed, and it was difficult to get through.
pennyriley's review against another edition
1.0
This is a semi-autobiographical memoir of Mila, dual national, born in Angola who moved to Portugal as a young child, written as a third person narrative. I suppose it's supposed to be a socio/political/cultural commentary on growing up coloured in white Europe in the 1980s, and each chapter has some anecdotal reference to her hair as an anchor point. Had it been longer I would not have finished it, but 140 skipping some of it can be managed in an afternoon. The writing is utterly pretentious - it reminds me of the kind of writing that too often accompanies art exhibitions that look as though even I could have produced the exhibits. To be truthful some of the writing IS beautiful and I also don't know how much the translator should be blamed. You might love it; I didn't.
jazzeeazz's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
“Make a museum of yourself and reveal what could already be seen” (148).
What a powerful thing to say because THAT’S EXACTLY WHAT SHE DID.
This novel is a beautiful reflection of Mila’s life. Her breathtaking claims perfectly put human experiences and emotions into words. Every time I underlined a quote, I put the book down and questioned my existence.
As someone with curly hair and a complicated relationship with my ethnicity, this book hit too close to home 🥲
“I see now that the tempo of this book ought to be punctuated not by haircuts and hairdos but by the time between each of these” (142).
I now need to read all of Djaimilia Pereira de Almeida’s books and have another existential crisis.
(also oh my Eric M. B. Becker’s translation is astounding and profound. dude. I didn’t know half of these words in English.)
What a powerful thing to say because THAT’S EXACTLY WHAT SHE DID.
This novel is a beautiful reflection of Mila’s life. Her breathtaking claims perfectly put human experiences and emotions into words. Every time I underlined a quote, I put the book down and questioned my existence.
As someone with curly hair and a complicated relationship with my ethnicity, this book hit too close to home 🥲
“I see now that the tempo of this book ought to be punctuated not by haircuts and hairdos but by the time between each of these” (142).
I now need to read all of Djaimilia Pereira de Almeida’s books and have another existential crisis.
(also oh my Eric M. B. Becker’s translation is astounding and profound. dude. I didn’t know half of these words in English.)
maddieg13's review against another edition
1.0
Every second spent trying to read this book was painful. It tries so hard to be deep and lyrical but comes off anything but.
ismendes's review against another edition
Nao gostei da meneira como está escrito. Não gosto de livros com muitos recursos estilísticos.