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cara_the_reader's review
5.0
I don't remember how I came across this collection, but I am so happy that I did. It is this little hidden gem I wish more people could get in their hands, especially those who are interested in writing about their owns life.
I love memoirs, but being someone who has done research on memory and cognition, I often think about how the typical memoir format is rarely representative of how the human memory works.
Tyrese Coleman successfully wrote a story about her life that mimics what the real memory processes look like. Nostalgia isn't a single memory, but rather it is grounded in pieces of many memories amalgamated together, which Coleman embodies when she switches the narrative from yesterday to years ago to a decade ago and then back to yesterday all within one essay. Memories are jumpy and rigid and aren't perfectly serial, and this collection really represents that. I also love that she talked about how she experiences life sometimes in third person and, as a result, she remembers those moments in third person. This often makes life for palatable because it allows us to separate ourselves from heavy pain that is experienced when we are the "main character" in our own stories. I think this is something that many people do and don't realize, and Coleman illustrated this process so beautifully.
This book also so accurately depicts the experience of Black women, specifically southern Black women, in the U.S. There is a war that is waged for us between ourselves and our bodies from a young age, a war that we then begin to wage ourselves. Considering the violence that is affecting Black women in this country, I think this is a really important read that will illustrate the relationship that Black women are expected to have with their own bodies and the abuse we face from young ages that are often ignored.
Anyways, That was one long ramble and didn't make too much sense. So, to put it simply, READ THIS!! It's a short but powerful work of art that I highly recommend.
I love memoirs, but being someone who has done research on memory and cognition, I often think about how the typical memoir format is rarely representative of how the human memory works.
Tyrese Coleman successfully wrote a story about her life that mimics what the real memory processes look like. Nostalgia isn't a single memory, but rather it is grounded in pieces of many memories amalgamated together, which Coleman embodies when she switches the narrative from yesterday to years ago to a decade ago and then back to yesterday all within one essay. Memories are jumpy and rigid and aren't perfectly serial, and this collection really represents that. I also love that she talked about how she experiences life sometimes in third person and, as a result, she remembers those moments in third person. This often makes life for palatable because it allows us to separate ourselves from heavy pain that is experienced when we are the "main character" in our own stories. I think this is something that many people do and don't realize, and Coleman illustrated this process so beautifully.
This book also so accurately depicts the experience of Black women, specifically southern Black women, in the U.S. There is a war that is waged for us between ourselves and our bodies from a young age, a war that we then begin to wage ourselves. Considering the violence that is affecting Black women in this country, I think this is a really important read that will illustrate the relationship that Black women are expected to have with their own bodies and the abuse we face from young ages that are often ignored.
Anyways, That was one long ramble and didn't make too much sense. So, to put it simply, READ THIS!! It's a short but powerful work of art that I highly recommend.
ramseyhootman's review
5.0
I don't remember when or why I started following Tyrese Coleman on Twitter, but every time she tweets about her life as a writer and a mother I find myself nodding amen. So I thought, I should read her book! I devoured this slim--but emotionally weighty--volume in one sitting. And damn, this is some good writing. The last memoir I remember reading that was this incisive and self-aware was Gary Presley's Seven Wheelchairs. I'm truly awed by anyone who can see themselves and their relationships to others this clearly, and with so much insight. (Definitely a skill I lack.)
As I finished the last page I wondered how to put into words this feeling of kinship with someone whose life experience is obviously so different than mine, but then I looked at the back cover and saw this quote: "Tyrese Coleman is going to tell you who she is and, if you listen well, who you are too." That's exactly it, right there. Coleman sees herself so clearly that she can distill the essence of a specific experience into a few words or lines which encompass the universal. Reading this, I gained a better awareness of myself.
As I finished the last page I wondered how to put into words this feeling of kinship with someone whose life experience is obviously so different than mine, but then I looked at the back cover and saw this quote: "Tyrese Coleman is going to tell you who she is and, if you listen well, who you are too." That's exactly it, right there. Coleman sees herself so clearly that she can distill the essence of a specific experience into a few words or lines which encompass the universal. Reading this, I gained a better awareness of myself.
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