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3.91 AVERAGE
3.91 AVERAGE
informative
reflective
slow-paced
This is a beautiful book about motherhood, love, anger and identity. Mailhot's memoir examines and aims to reconcile with her past and present as an Indigenous woman from the Pacific Northwest. The way that Mailhot writes poetically and honestly about her struggles with mental health and relationship is very powerful and connects reader to author emotionally. I especially liked how she captured the complexity of her relationship with her somewhat neglecting but strong willed mother. "My mother didn't feel like mine as much as I wanted to belong to her-to be inseparable from her. She taught me that I didn't own things. I really liked the idea of possession. We don't own our mothers. We don't own our bodies or our land-maybe I'm unsure. We become the land when we're buried in it" (Mailhot 72).
Unfortunately towards the end it lost me, as the time periods started intertwining in a way that became confusing to follow. Despite this, I know that this powerful memoir will stick with me for a while.
Unfortunately towards the end it lost me, as the time periods started intertwining in a way that became confusing to follow. Despite this, I know that this powerful memoir will stick with me for a while.
This was a very difficult book to read but I was absolutely mesmerized.
Wow. This book is hard. But important. And beautifully written.
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
fast-paced
Mailhot is a writer to be reckoned with. Heart Berries is a raw, unfiltered look at Mailhot's life told via ethereal and poetic proses. However, Mailhot's proses felt disjointed at times making her story, at times, inaccessible to the reader.
This memoir deals with some very difficult themes and interrogates colonialism in an individual way. I admired how it resisted a lot of the typical tropes of indigenous memoir. I love all of the classics in the genre (Momaday, Erdrich, etc) and think they say so many important things, but it’s also refreshing for someone to come in and talk about indigeneity from a different perspective that builds upon others’ work. The brevity and directness of this memoir seemed like a very brave and ideological choice. There was plenty of lyricism, but not much bulk. It left me wanting more, but also with the sense that Mailhot was giving me the parts of the story that she wanted me to have. There were some things that struck really close to home, like how Mailhot frames intrusive thought and the nonlinear nature of memory. The second person with which she refers to her past lover throughout the book was really gutting. It brings up discomfort for me to have her narrative directed to this person who had disrespected her, but it also felt very honest.
This is one of the best books I have ever read. It is a raw and unadulterated bearing of a soul onto paper. It leaves you meditating on your own grief yet it also gives you an unfaltering sense of pride in surviving the human experience. Heart Berries is truly a work of art, and there are no words to really describe how beautiful it is. Thank you Terese Mailhot.
challenging
emotional
inspiring
reflective
sad
fast-paced