Reviews

Love Is an Ex-Country by Randa Jarrar

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slenoch's review against another edition

3.5

not the best memoir I've ever heard but still really enjoyable! I'm glad she got out of an abusive relationship and yet another book about understanding how parents are harmed as children and the way they perpetuate it (that I'm reading, I don't think there are too many books like it). I want to read her sex books and further work, which i think is a good indicator of a memoir actually.

george_and_books's review against another edition

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reflective fast-paced

4.0

kmk95's review against another edition

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challenging emotional funny reflective medium-paced

4.0

sooooo many cw/tws to take a peek at before reading this book (part of why i took this read slow), but well worth the read. some described this as "disjointed" and to an extent i would agree, in the sense that memory is disjointed and working through trauma is disjointed and piecing our lives back together is disjointed. in that way, it almost reminded me of in the dream house — not every book needs to be cleanly organized and chronological to pull punches, and this one did. following along this journey towards healing and discovery was beautiful, and the last lines are still echoing for me.

alainajreads's review against another edition

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Perhaps I should’ve heeded the trigger warnings and read the reviews before jumping into this, but I was expecting something totally different based on the synopsis. Rather than a travelogue, the writing was a bit disjointed and dealt with themes that, while important to discuss, were more traumatic than I was expecting. I enjoyed the first few chapters and Jarrar had some interesting insights about being Arab in America and I wished there were more about her cross-country road trip. Not bad, just not for me and not what I was expecting.

Content Warnings

mewpre's review against another edition

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challenging emotional reflective medium-paced

4.0

ecarper's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional funny hopeful medium-paced

3.75

While I did expect this book to include more of her road-trip across America, and was confused by the organization of the chapters at times, I did appreciate the final picture this memoir made: one of a journey to home and healing, self-actualisation, and personal freedom.

I also did appreciate how unapologetically Jarrar discussed her experiences and her sexuality. Although, check context warnings because this is one explicit memoir.