Reviews

I've Been Meaning to Tell You: A Letter to My Daughter by David Chariandy

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katieckb's review against another edition

4.0

This is a short book that is written as a message to his daughter. It describes his experience growing up as a person of colour and his hopes for her future. I liked the writing style.

sayevet's review against another edition

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4.0

"You did not create the inequalities and injustices of this world, daughter. You are neither solely nor uniquely responsible to fix them. If there is anything to learn from the story of our ancestry, it is that you should respect and protect yourself; that you should demand not only justice but joy; that you should see, truly see, the vulnerability and the creativity and the enduring beauty of others."

"I had forgotten that racial identity is so rarely a matter of personal choice. That it is always, in origin, a falsehood and violence, though it can become, all the same, a necessary tool for acknowledging the enduring life and creativity of a persistently maligned people."

Growing up with white kids, "I glimpsed their contradictions, their inner doubts and vulnerabilities, their brave curiosities and cowardly tribalisms, their sincere desire to be good and also their ability to be casually cruel. The truth is that before I could appreciate my own complex humanity, I was made to understand and appreciate theirs, which I saw confirmed, over and over again, on television, in films, and in books."

thepentheimk's review against another edition

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4.0

4.5

caseythecanadianlesbrarian's review against another edition

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4.0

In the vein of Ta-Nehisi Coates (both writers were inspired by the same James Baldwin essay), Chariandy writes a letter about race, identity, and belonging to his 13-year-old daughter. It's a very sweet, tender book that while reading feels almost like you've stumbled upon something too personal for outside eyes, like you're trespassing. Many beautiful loving words here. I'd probably recommend the print rather than the audiobook. I found Chariandy's narration too slow and overenuciated.

nyigma's review against another edition

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challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

4.0

naysayerofthenorth's review against another edition

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5.0

Thank you to Penguin Random House for sending me a copy of this book on exchange for my honest review. I enjoyed this so much more than I thought I would, expecting it to be too similar to Dear Ijeawale, Or a Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions, but this father's love letter to his daughter is so much different. David Chariandy describes his own experiences with racism while also acknowledging the deep rooted racism in Canada against indigenous people through a heartwarming, but also heartbreaking letter to his thirteen year old daughter. Chariandy also describes the search for identity and the importance of understanding ancestoral heritage. So much emotion packed into 120 pages and I learned a great amount from such a short book!