Reviews

Citizen: An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine

flowerbinsh's review

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Literally just did not have the time to finish for my Modernist and Contemporary Lit class. 

mb1520's review

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2.0

This book just wasn’t for me. I had a hard time following along at times due to a lack of punctuation and (what I felt was) rambling. This led to my mind wandering and me having to reread sections multiple times; a few of which I reread and just moved on because I still couldn’t wrap my head around it.

HOWEVER, the parts that were formatted like a typical book were outstanding. I especially enjoyed the chapter about Serena Williams. Having grown up watching Venus and Serena win numerous matches, I’ve never thought about tennis as a “white” sport, but after reading this I had to just sit for a while and think about it because it blew my mind.

While I had a hard time actually reading this book, the fact that I finished it in 3 days attests to the fact that I looked forward to reading more (silently hoping for more chapters like the Serena Williams one).

fannysshelves's review

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emotional slow-paced

3.75

bombdreamy22's review against another edition

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challenging emotional

3.5

nickscoby's review

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3.0

oh, dear. I really wanted to like this book much more than I did. it starts very promising, with a series of microaggressions that the narrator has experienced but written in experimental poetry form. and then comes the section on Serena Williams, which is pretty phenomenal. And after that, I either lost interest or got bored or something. I couldn't wait for the book to end, actually. Gave me flashbacks to graduate school, and not in good ways.

asreadbycourtney's review

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reflective

3.0

bookreviewswithkb's review

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emotional reflective

4.0

this is a reflective, thought-provoking, and insightful collection - on what it means to be visible in a society that’s done everything it can to make you invisible, the compounding effects of racism at the individual and societal level, the aggression towards Black people in america, and the way Black people move through and manage pain. it’s an exploration of the connections between the everyday inflictions of racism and the tragedies created through that giving way for Hurricane Katrina and the murder of Trayvon Martin and so much more 

thejkhanna's review

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adventurous challenging emotional informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

5.0

adelinemrt's review

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challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

4.75

nejtack's review

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challenging dark medium-paced

4.0