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booksarentbinary's review against another edition
5.0
For me, this essay was resonant beyond possible annotation! Every line sews an accessible thread into both the inherited and the imagined worlds.
Singh unfolded a cohesive theme of vulnerability politics, a cyclic transformation of ‘the breaks’ into mends that echo as we as actively discuss identity through the lens of accessibility with more societal awareness than ever before.
I appreciated the authors expression of explorative relationship structure and queer cohabitation, dwelling within safe spaces designed for adjacent living. The fertile representation of the other, the alternate is both plangent and inspiring.
With the essence of becoming, I will eagerly await a re-reading of this in aid of navigating the terrain of residence, chosen family, community presence and queer mothering for one’s own.
Singh unfolded a cohesive theme of vulnerability politics, a cyclic transformation of ‘the breaks’ into mends that echo as we as actively discuss identity through the lens of accessibility with more societal awareness than ever before.
I appreciated the authors expression of explorative relationship structure and queer cohabitation, dwelling within safe spaces designed for adjacent living. The fertile representation of the other, the alternate is both plangent and inspiring.
With the essence of becoming, I will eagerly await a re-reading of this in aid of navigating the terrain of residence, chosen family, community presence and queer mothering for one’s own.
em_harring's review against another edition
4.0
A meditation on race and the current state of America (or the world, in the case of the climate crisis) written by Singh to her daughter, in the same vein as "My Dungeon Shook" and Between the World and Me.
So much of this long essay is so beautifully, eloquently stated. It's clear that Singh is an academic not only through her references but just in the way that she writes and thinks. This is definitely a "thinky" essay, which means that it's a bit more distanced than either of the other works I mentioned above. I didn't feel as emotionally connected to the essay as I did to either "My Dungeon Shook" and Between the World and Me.
I'm also unsure that all the threads came together by the end. It's possible they weren't meant to, which I get. But some narratives felt out of place or didn't connect in a way that totally made sense to me in context. I did enjoy the fact that it was one long essay, not broken into sections, though. I think that made sense for what Singh did.
I also loved the discussion on queer collective living and queer architecture. I want an essay on that!
Overall, I'd highly recommend and will check out more by Singh.
So much of this long essay is so beautifully, eloquently stated. It's clear that Singh is an academic not only through her references but just in the way that she writes and thinks. This is definitely a "thinky" essay, which means that it's a bit more distanced than either of the other works I mentioned above. I didn't feel as emotionally connected to the essay as I did to either "My Dungeon Shook" and Between the World and Me.
I'm also unsure that all the threads came together by the end. It's possible they weren't meant to, which I get. But some narratives felt out of place or didn't connect in a way that totally made sense to me in context. I did enjoy the fact that it was one long essay, not broken into sections, though. I think that made sense for what Singh did.
I also loved the discussion on queer collective living and queer architecture. I want an essay on that!
Overall, I'd highly recommend and will check out more by Singh.
half_book_and_co's review against another edition
4.0
"If our survival has by now become impossible, I want to join all our expiring selves in fierce poetic refusal, until every last one of our bodies has been destroyed, then recycled, to emerge as other earthly things."
The Breaks is adressed to Julietta Singh's daughter but also to a wide audience - drawing on a lineage of texts in which an older generation adresses the younger one like James Baldwin's The Fire Next Time. Singh thinks about what it means to live and parent in the midst of a climate crisis. She probes the ways capitalism, racism, and patriarchy shape our world and ways to resist this. Singh states: "I try to teach you against my own teaching, to reanimate a world of flourishing animacies I have almost lost."
She weaves together her personal story - from her specific upbringing and complicated family relations, her experiences with illness (though would have loved if she used ableism a bit more as a frame of analysis) to her building a queer family - with broader discussions showing again and again the interconnectedness. Somehow Singh manages to show the dreadful situation we are without writing a hopeless book. This book is not naive or simplistic but instead it's tender and deeply human.
I will keep this book in mind if I ever look for a present for people becoming parents/ caretakers for kids. But even if you do not parent and don't plan to (like I) reading this book is a gift in itself.
The Breaks is adressed to Julietta Singh's daughter but also to a wide audience - drawing on a lineage of texts in which an older generation adresses the younger one like James Baldwin's The Fire Next Time. Singh thinks about what it means to live and parent in the midst of a climate crisis. She probes the ways capitalism, racism, and patriarchy shape our world and ways to resist this. Singh states: "I try to teach you against my own teaching, to reanimate a world of flourishing animacies I have almost lost."
She weaves together her personal story - from her specific upbringing and complicated family relations, her experiences with illness (though would have loved if she used ableism a bit more as a frame of analysis) to her building a queer family - with broader discussions showing again and again the interconnectedness. Somehow Singh manages to show the dreadful situation we are without writing a hopeless book. This book is not naive or simplistic but instead it's tender and deeply human.
I will keep this book in mind if I ever look for a present for people becoming parents/ caretakers for kids. But even if you do not parent and don't plan to (like I) reading this book is a gift in itself.
sophieecook's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
5.0
a stunning book, full of precious insights and life. this memoir brings light to Singh’s experiences with identity, whether that’s racial, sexual, cultural, personal or communal. her writing is luminous and i was moved deeply throughout this book. the depictions of family and motherhood, of activism and hope in the face of darkness make this book truly wonderful. please read this
‘We are each our mothers’ daughters, let loose in the world to heal and to offer healing, to build from the weight and wonder of the women who made us and who let us go.’
‘We are each our mothers’ daughters, let loose in the world to heal and to offer healing, to build from the weight and wonder of the women who made us and who let us go.’
eadiem's review against another edition
5.0
Incredibly insightful.
Her explanations on what it is to build different family structures and create a home within a society not set up for queer family structures was very interesting and well put across.
Then her descriptions on what it is to raise a child, whilst simultaneously teaching them about our society, race, views on gender, protest and education systems, was facinating in its constant self reflection and calmness.
It makes me hopeful about future generations, and the alternative ways people can go into parenthood.
I'll be thinking about this book for a long time.
Her explanations on what it is to build different family structures and create a home within a society not set up for queer family structures was very interesting and well put across.
Then her descriptions on what it is to raise a child, whilst simultaneously teaching them about our society, race, views on gender, protest and education systems, was facinating in its constant self reflection and calmness.
It makes me hopeful about future generations, and the alternative ways people can go into parenthood.
I'll be thinking about this book for a long time.