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3.91 AVERAGE
3.91 AVERAGE
This is a complicated book. It's almost stream of consciousness writing. But there's a lot of original thought process here too. I wasn't really into the narration. It's a 3.75/5, but I'd recommend this still. I particularly liked the writing on self esteem and identity capitalism.
I think I was meant to read this stunning memoir right at this moment in time. I’ve been feeling particularly triggered by the news these past few weeks, and beginning to wonder again about the disservice I am doing to myself and others by not being able to talk about the childhood trauma I carry with me, masked lesions on my body, scars that don’t disappear just because we talk about them. Terese Marie Mailhot describes the effects of intergenerational trauma in a way that speaks to me directly, cuts through me as my brain recognizes and relates, my body curling into itself again and again as I read.
This memoir is sheer poetry, the writing flows beautifully; jarring, real, ripping you apart. I read it in one day, not being able to put it down, but at the same time unwilling to reach the last page.
Written pen to paper during a psychiatric stay Terese Marie Mailhot committed herself to after a breakdown, Heart Berries starts as a letter to her now husband Casey and evolves into a memoir of a life where normalcy never became an option until she was well into adulthood. Born into dysfunction, abuse, and poverty, with an alcoholic and abusive father, a mother committed to saving others while leaving her children to fend for themselves, and a grandmother who had survived the horrors of the Canadian residential schools as a child, Terese Marie Mailhot weaves past and present together as one. How does one raise one’s voice when no one wants to hear it? How does one break the cycle for once and for all? Heart Berries is Terese Marie Mailhot’s answer to those questions, and so much more.
We have spent far too long erasing, dehumanizing, categorizing, and forgetting Native American women. These are the voices that we need to listen to. These are the voices we must hear. Terese Marie Mailhot grew up on the Seabird Island First Nation Indian reservation in British Columbia, and her voice is so strong and powerful. She writes so beautifully, her heritage and upbringing woven together in her now, and her memoir strips her soul bare to the world, inspiring in its truth and multi-faceted visions of her childhood, her mind, her love, and her search for difference. I can’t recommend this book enough, and I know I will need to reread it again very soon.
This memoir is sheer poetry, the writing flows beautifully; jarring, real, ripping you apart. I read it in one day, not being able to put it down, but at the same time unwilling to reach the last page.
Written pen to paper during a psychiatric stay Terese Marie Mailhot committed herself to after a breakdown, Heart Berries starts as a letter to her now husband Casey and evolves into a memoir of a life where normalcy never became an option until she was well into adulthood. Born into dysfunction, abuse, and poverty, with an alcoholic and abusive father, a mother committed to saving others while leaving her children to fend for themselves, and a grandmother who had survived the horrors of the Canadian residential schools as a child, Terese Marie Mailhot weaves past and present together as one. How does one raise one’s voice when no one wants to hear it? How does one break the cycle for once and for all? Heart Berries is Terese Marie Mailhot’s answer to those questions, and so much more.
We have spent far too long erasing, dehumanizing, categorizing, and forgetting Native American women. These are the voices that we need to listen to. These are the voices we must hear. Terese Marie Mailhot grew up on the Seabird Island First Nation Indian reservation in British Columbia, and her voice is so strong and powerful. She writes so beautifully, her heritage and upbringing woven together in her now, and her memoir strips her soul bare to the world, inspiring in its truth and multi-faceted visions of her childhood, her mind, her love, and her search for difference. I can’t recommend this book enough, and I know I will need to reread it again very soon.
challenging
emotional
reflective
fast-paced
Intimate, felt like I was reading a personal diary of the author. There was a lack of exposition so when new people were introduced as a reader you were left to keep going to figure out the gaps. In the end, I knew this book was for the author and not the audience. The prose was poetic and heartbreaking at the same tome. I thank the author for inviting me into her mind.
This book was hard a difficult one to rate because rating memoirs implies that one is passing judgement on someone's life. Mailhot's pain bleeds out onto every page. Her pain seems to be not only a personal one but also an inherited one passed down from generations, one that is quintessentially "Indian." Mailhot's past and perhaps her personality drew her into a a series of life choices, including .
I found Mailhot's stream-of-conscious writing style disjointed and difficult to follow. She would jump from one topic to the next, just after she had said something explosive and you were waiting for her to elaborate. She brutally bared her soul in parts and glossed over other areas of her life. Also, bizarrely, it was addressed to her boyfriend-then-latest-husband, with whom it appeared she shared a malignant and doomed relationship.
This was only the third book written by a Native American or First Nations author. While I would like to read more books by these authors, I'm hoping for a less visceral read. This memoir had an overwhelming feeling of discouragement and despair. I would much rather read a memoir in which a person overcomes the odds and still sees the good in life, something like [b:The Last Lecture|40611510|The Last Lecture|Randy Pausch|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1529682044s/40611510.jpg|3364076] [b:The Glass Castle|7445|The Glass Castle|Jeannette Walls|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1523542886s/7445.jpg|2944133], [b:Educated|35133922|Educated|Tara Westover|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1506026635s/35133922.jpg|53814228], or [b:The Story of My Life|821611|The Story of My Life|Helen Keller|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1320429331s/821611.jpg|1602613].
Spoiler
her first child being removed from her custody just as she was giving birth to her second, using men for money and things, entering a toxic relationship that resulted in a voluntary stay in a mental hospitalI found Mailhot's stream-of-conscious writing style disjointed and difficult to follow. She would jump from one topic to the next, just after she had said something explosive and you were waiting for her to elaborate. She brutally bared her soul in parts and glossed over other areas of her life. Also, bizarrely, it was addressed to her boyfriend-then-latest-husband, with whom it appeared she shared a malignant and doomed relationship.
This was only the third book written by a Native American or First Nations author. While I would like to read more books by these authors, I'm hoping for a less visceral read. This memoir had an overwhelming feeling of discouragement and despair. I would much rather read a memoir in which a person overcomes the odds and still sees the good in life, something like [b:The Last Lecture|40611510|The Last Lecture|Randy Pausch|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1529682044s/40611510.jpg|3364076] [b:The Glass Castle|7445|The Glass Castle|Jeannette Walls|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1523542886s/7445.jpg|2944133], [b:Educated|35133922|Educated|Tara Westover|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1506026635s/35133922.jpg|53814228], or [b:The Story of My Life|821611|The Story of My Life|Helen Keller|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1320429331s/821611.jpg|1602613].
1.5/5
Do not read this as an audiobook - that might have just been my downfall. Honestly, the entire book was a struggle to find a single storyline. I dare say I found out more facts about the character on the back cover summary rather than after ploughing through the entire novel. Even more honestly, the book is so un-memorable, I struggle to craft more than two sentences about it, despite me finishing it yesterday.
Do not read this as an audiobook - that might have just been my downfall. Honestly, the entire book was a struggle to find a single storyline. I dare say I found out more facts about the character on the back cover summary rather than after ploughing through the entire novel. Even more honestly, the book is so un-memorable, I struggle to craft more than two sentences about it, despite me finishing it yesterday.
challenging
dark
sad
slow-paced
The writing in the book was poignant and the story was powerful. The one problem for me however, was the lack of flow between events in the story. This made it hard to follow at times and I felt like the author kept moving onto the next thing before fleshing out the previous one.