Scan barcode
serenology's review
dark
emotional
funny
informative
inspiring
reflective
tense
medium-paced
5.0
"I celebrate / my naked, lonesome self. Less escape, more journey, desiring nothing but to fill / my own appetite." -- After Running Away From Another Marriage Proposal
Almontaser's collection of poetry combines Arabic and English, American culture with Yemeni heritage. The struggles and conflicts she experiences of her gender, her religion, her homes. Without knowing the language, I still feel the intensity of her words and the fierceness with which she writes.
This is a work that deserves every award it received.
Almontaser's collection of poetry combines Arabic and English, American culture with Yemeni heritage. The struggles and conflicts she experiences of her gender, her religion, her homes. Without knowing the language, I still feel the intensity of her words and the fierceness with which she writes.
This is a work that deserves every award it received.
ashleyjannet_'s review
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
tense
medium-paced
4.5
benplatt's review
4.0
A brash, contemporary collection with a voice honed into a sharp edge attempting to dissect femininity, patriarchy, Islamaphobia, and Yemeni/Yemeni-American identity. With an emphasis on identity, as much of the collection is grounded in the speaker's bodily experience of the world - this is a poetry of the speaker's experience through and through, although with gestures and some strong poems that abstract into the larger social and geopolitical worlds that are necessarily mapped onto that bodily experience.
monisreading_'s review
challenging
informative
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
This collection of poetry on womanhood and the trials and pride of the people of Yemen was quite frankly brilliant.
The poem about the Christchurch massacre was unexpected and has me sobbing on the Tube.
thequeenreads's review
4.0
To beat up boys
at the park, make one my wife
in a white dress when we play marriage
at the park, make one my wife
in a white dress when we play marriage
dotorsojak's review
3.0
Pretty good. Nice that it won the Whitman Award because superficially, stylistically the book is Whitmanesque. Lots of family stuff here. The poems tend to be long and I think several could benefit from cutting. Some great lines about being a muslim woman in 21st century USA. Next to last poem in collection, "When White Boys Ask to See My Hair," is highly recommended. Mahmoud Darwish and Abdullah Al-Baradouni are quoted or translated more than once. There's lots of Arabic poetry (in arabic script) for those who read that language. I don't. There's much Arabic and perhaps Yemeni vocabulary here as well. Good for one's vocabulary. Another favorite poem is: "Hunger Wraps Himself," which ends with the following lines:
"...By now,
she has grown intimate with starvation, wears it
like a pink buttercup behind her ear, handpicked
by a shy boy, later lost in the nest of her curls."
Wow, wow, wow. Recomended.
"...By now,
she has grown intimate with starvation, wears it
like a pink buttercup behind her ear, handpicked
by a shy boy, later lost in the nest of her curls."
Wow, wow, wow. Recomended.