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bites_of_books's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
fast-paced
5.0
This is a collection of poems that tell stories of people from the Marshall Islands. They each teach the history of the islands, from the nuclear testing to the effect of climate change, as well as personal stories of the author's family members.
I loved the structure of the collection, each part focusing on a specific theme, history, culture shock, racism, and climate change. These poems also contain a good portion in Marshallese, to reflect the union and clash of the two cultures. While I don't know Marshallese, I felt like it didn't detract from my experience at all. It is all very easy to understand and a lot of the poems left me with a lot to think about.
I'd highly recommend this collection, especially if you're interested in non-fiction poetry. I found it a very accessible way to learn about a part of the world that I didn't know much about before readin
I loved the structure of the collection, each part focusing on a specific theme, history, culture shock, racism, and climate change. These poems also contain a good portion in Marshallese, to reflect the union and clash of the two cultures. While I don't know Marshallese, I felt like it didn't detract from my experience at all. It is all very easy to understand and a lot of the poems left me with a lot to think about.
I'd highly recommend this collection, especially if you're interested in non-fiction poetry. I found it a very accessible way to learn about a part of the world that I didn't know much about before readin
venetiana's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
slow-paced
5.0
Beautiful poetry, and - although this is an overused word - important.
Content Warnings
Minor: Grief, Genocide, Injury/Injury detail, Racial slurs, Xenophobia, Blood, Colonisation, Cultural appropriation, Death, Medical content, Misogyny, and Racism
kevinmccarrick's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
hopeful
informative
reflective
slow-paced
4.5
autistic_dragon's review against another edition
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
fast-paced
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cancer
lleullawgyffes's review against another edition
5.0
“baam̧ (baham). From Engl. 2(inf, tr
-e) 3,4,6(-i). Bomb. As in
Kobaam̧ ke?
Are you contaminated
with radioactive fallout?”
(“The letter B is for”)
-e) 3,4,6(-i). Bomb. As in
Kobaam̧ ke?
Are you contaminated
with radioactive fallout?”
(“The letter B is for”)
elenasquareeyes's review against another edition
5.0
I’ve read about a dozen poetry collections for my Read the World Project and I still think it’s an often interesting way to get a snapshot of a poets culture and interests. I think that Iep Jāltok is one of my favourite, and the best, collections I’ve read in a while.
The style of the poems differ. Some are in simple stanzas, others the words meander across the page or is just one big paragraph. There’s a few that are concrete poetry – written in the shape of a boat or a pot.
I knew nothing about the Marshall Islands before picking up Iep Jāltok and even now I still know very little. The poem “History Project” (which is also the name of one of the four sections of the collection) is about how when Jetn̄il-Kijiner was in school she researched how the United States conducted nuclear testing on the Marshall Islands. That in and of itself is something that I never knew about but how the poem goes into the images and statistics she found, the lasting effects on generations of people from the radiation, how Americans protested animals being used as guineapigs but not the people of the islands – it’s all so sad, horrible, but also not that surprising when you consider the history of the USA. It’s a really effective poem and after that one there’s mention of radiation and the sickness it caused in members of Jetn̄il-Kijiner’s family in other poems.
It’s the poems about the history of the Marshall Islands, its people and the effect climate is having on them that I really liked. There are poems about how the Marshallese are lumped together with other people from different small island countries in the Pacific Ocean. The racism Jetn̄il-Kijiner has experienced and how she feels that she and her people are forgotten by the rest of the world – especially when it comes to climate change. “Two Degrees” is about how the increase in temperature of two degrees will affect the Marshall Islands, and how the rising sea levels is already flooding the islands. Terms like rising sea levels often seem abstract and hard to comprehend, whether because you live away from the coast or it’s genuinely hard to image a beach or land no longer being above water. Having the effects of climate change laid out in a poem makes it seem so simple and real.
Iep Jāltok is a thought-provoking poetry collection with a lot of powerful poems. It shows history and issues from a point of view I had not seen before and demonstrates how unfortunately universal things like racism and climate change affect people differently when they’re from different communities.
The style of the poems differ. Some are in simple stanzas, others the words meander across the page or is just one big paragraph. There’s a few that are concrete poetry – written in the shape of a boat or a pot.
I knew nothing about the Marshall Islands before picking up Iep Jāltok and even now I still know very little. The poem “History Project” (which is also the name of one of the four sections of the collection) is about how when Jetn̄il-Kijiner was in school she researched how the United States conducted nuclear testing on the Marshall Islands. That in and of itself is something that I never knew about but how the poem goes into the images and statistics she found, the lasting effects on generations of people from the radiation, how Americans protested animals being used as guineapigs but not the people of the islands – it’s all so sad, horrible, but also not that surprising when you consider the history of the USA. It’s a really effective poem and after that one there’s mention of radiation and the sickness it caused in members of Jetn̄il-Kijiner’s family in other poems.
It’s the poems about the history of the Marshall Islands, its people and the effect climate is having on them that I really liked. There are poems about how the Marshallese are lumped together with other people from different small island countries in the Pacific Ocean. The racism Jetn̄il-Kijiner has experienced and how she feels that she and her people are forgotten by the rest of the world – especially when it comes to climate change. “Two Degrees” is about how the increase in temperature of two degrees will affect the Marshall Islands, and how the rising sea levels is already flooding the islands. Terms like rising sea levels often seem abstract and hard to comprehend, whether because you live away from the coast or it’s genuinely hard to image a beach or land no longer being above water. Having the effects of climate change laid out in a poem makes it seem so simple and real.
Iep Jāltok is a thought-provoking poetry collection with a lot of powerful poems. It shows history and issues from a point of view I had not seen before and demonstrates how unfortunately universal things like racism and climate change affect people differently when they’re from different communities.
sarahnichearnigh's review against another edition
challenging
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
4.5
Devastating and brilliant
adastraperlibros's review against another edition
5.0
Iep Jāltok is the debut poetry collection by Marshallese activist Kathy Jetn̄il-Kijiner. The poems here range in topic to everything from the racism she experienced as a Marshallese person in Hawaii to the legacy of American nuclear testing on the Marshall Islands to the outsized impact of climate change on island nations.
The opening page explains that "Iep Jāltok" is Marshallese for a basket that faces the speaker, but can also refer to Marshallese society as a whole, and a basket is exactly what this collection reads as. Fibers of Marshallese culture, diaspora experiences, and the fight against a rising sea weave together in ways both beautiful and heartbreaking, creating a whole that is greater than the sum of the parts.
These pages thrum with hurt, sadness, and rage, but also with healing, justice, and hope. I highly recommend videos of the author reading her own poems, they're really meant to be heard.
The opening page explains that "Iep Jāltok" is Marshallese for a basket that faces the speaker, but can also refer to Marshallese society as a whole, and a basket is exactly what this collection reads as. Fibers of Marshallese culture, diaspora experiences, and the fight against a rising sea weave together in ways both beautiful and heartbreaking, creating a whole that is greater than the sum of the parts.
These pages thrum with hurt, sadness, and rage, but also with healing, justice, and hope. I highly recommend videos of the author reading her own poems, they're really meant to be heard.