Reviews

I've always admired the sturdiness of Audre Lorde's words. Nearly fifty years later, the truth in her words holds up, even when she speaks of apartheid or 60s-era civil rights. There's an uncanniness to her insights that surpasses the trappings of time.

That said, A Burst of Light is a far more personal lens into Audre Lorde. It does not necessarily feel cohesive as a collection (the best part is the journal portion, which felt like the meat of the collection), but the content more than makes up for it. That said, all three essays are excellent and her journal entries are thoughtful meditations on living with cancer.

sophmcgraw's review against another edition

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emotional informative inspiring reflective fast-paced

4.0

raulbime's review against another edition

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4.0

Audre Lorde is one of the most quotable writers out there. Several of her quotes about self-care, love, and liberation, circulate, whether online or offline, and its not necessarily a bad thing, this coming from a person who loves quotes, including Lorde's, and is known to write down those he finds interesting and insightful on a regular basis. That said, quotes, as necessary as they are, can work against the work they represent when they're simply taken, decontextualized and used to serve whatever purpose the quoter wants (I recall several queerphobic individuals freely quoting Audre Lorde and James Baldwin a few years ago) and it is important to read the whole from which the quote is extracted from. This would be a good place for a reader who's reading Audre Lorde for the first time: an interview, speeches, and journal entries.

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