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alyssamakesart's review
challenging
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
slow-paced
I don’t want rate this because not only is it a personal account this was an intimate look at Rachel’s life shared posthumously and without her consent. I will say that I think most people should read the last quarter of this book.
It felt almost surreal seeing her adapt her language to trepidation to hopefulness and hopelessness and back to hopefulness before the book was ultimately cut short due to her murder by the IDF. I think the voices of Palestinians (there and abroad) and anti-Zionist Jews matter the most but there’s this string of familiarity reading the perspective of an American non Arab woman come to understand the genocide as I have. Our lives couldn’t be more different but also there’s a connection to the horror of understanding slowly and yet light years compared to most on how Israel/The US uses our tax dollars to fund the extermination of a people from a land into the 21st century.
It felt almost surreal seeing her adapt her language to trepidation to hopefulness and hopelessness and back to hopefulness before the book was ultimately cut short due to her murder by the IDF. I think the voices of Palestinians (there and abroad) and anti-Zionist Jews matter the most but there’s this string of familiarity reading the perspective of an American non Arab woman come to understand the genocide as I have. Our lives couldn’t be more different but also there’s a connection to the horror of understanding slowly and yet light years compared to most on how Israel/The US uses our tax dollars to fund the extermination of a people from a land into the 21st century.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Islamophobia, Genocide, and War
Minor: Transphobia, Child death, Mental illness, and Death
sage0nline's review against another edition
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
5.0
baguettegay's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
fast-paced
5.0
smokeyshouse's review against another edition
challenging
informative
reflective
medium-paced
3.5
Her example as a person and her story of awakening to activism is amazing, but the way the book was structured didn't fully satisfy (fragmentary snapshots). The introduction was very good, and made me wonder if this could have worked better as a biography.
reign_storm's review against another edition
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
5.0
Not much has changed in the 20 years since Rachel's passing, which makes this a really, really tough read. Reading the intro from her family and the last 20% of the journals written while she was in Palestine was extremely emotional. Rest in power, Rachel.
bbqrplanting's review against another edition
4.0
I read this book slowly while reading a slew of other books. It was a good book to put down and pick up again since it mainly consisted of journal entries. I really enjoyed reading Corrie's journals-it was well written and I empathized with her feelings. The majority of the book doesn't revolve around her activist work/Palestine...thats only about the last fourth of the book.
I thought the letter to her mother from Palestine from pages 278-284 were particularly moving and thought provoking in terms of why we fight, being in it for the long haul, etc.
I thought the letter to her mother from Palestine from pages 278-284 were particularly moving and thought provoking in terms of why we fight, being in it for the long haul, etc.
sonicmooks's review against another edition
2.0
For those who are not familiar with the backstory...Rachel Corrie was a young activist from Olympia, WA who went to Palestine with the ISM (International Solidarity Movement) to help Palestinians defend their homes from demolition by the occupying Israeli Army in Rafah. ISM volunteers attempted to provide human shields against Israeli tanks and bulldozers. Corrie was killed when a bulldozer ran over her (twice!) as she attempted to stop the destruction of a Palestinian home. The story got limited coverage in major U.S. media, who were "distracted" while providing jingoistic coverage of the just launched war in Iraq. Her death was a tragedy, within an incredibly tragic situation in Palestine, a situation that the U.S. government is undeniably complicit in, but that does not seem to warrant headlines in the U.S. media (oh, we will report the hell out of a Palestinian suicide bomber in Tel Aviv, but you will rarely hear about the acts of genocide committed by the Israeli military and security forces in the occupied territories).
Ok. Enough of the geo-political diatribe...as far as this book goes...I had huge hopes for it, but overall it was hit and miss at best. Obviously, Corrie was not a polished writer, though her insights, style and candor are often refreshing. And of course I doubt she ever intended the world at large to ever see a lot of this (I would cringe to think that my parents would publish my teenage journals after my death). The book is obviously an attempt to identify Rachel Corrie as a martyr, and to keep her memory alive for those who have only come to know her through her death. I understand that. I just have conflicting emotions about it.
The writing starts to get interesting as Rachel reaches high school and college and becomes more engaged and "polished" as a writer. She begins to find her voice, and (as with most/some people of that age) begins to become more self aware, and more inquisitive about the ways of the world and her place in it. These passages can be interesting, even if they are a bit uncomfortable as they offer a voyeuristic view into a life being formed. It's obvious that Corrie loved to write, and aspired to be a "writer", and these rough sketches do show promise. But there's also a lot of fluff, and scribblings that read like a grocery list without context.
Early on the book is full of pre-adolescent poetry and wide eyed wonder...charming in it's way...but perhaps a bit more than I could stomach at times.
Overall, I think this book would have been more interesting and perhaps more effective if it was composed in a way as to provide more context to the writings included. Perhaps some sort of journalistic biography included with Corrie's personal writings? Who knows? But at it's core this book underlines the tragedy of cutting short a life full of such promise, passion and compassion, and if all this accomplishes is to make the reader consider that loss more closely, and the countless others that go unnoticed everyday, then the effort is/was well worth it.
Ok. Enough of the geo-political diatribe...as far as this book goes...I had huge hopes for it, but overall it was hit and miss at best. Obviously, Corrie was not a polished writer, though her insights, style and candor are often refreshing. And of course I doubt she ever intended the world at large to ever see a lot of this (I would cringe to think that my parents would publish my teenage journals after my death). The book is obviously an attempt to identify Rachel Corrie as a martyr, and to keep her memory alive for those who have only come to know her through her death. I understand that. I just have conflicting emotions about it.
The writing starts to get interesting as Rachel reaches high school and college and becomes more engaged and "polished" as a writer. She begins to find her voice, and (as with most/some people of that age) begins to become more self aware, and more inquisitive about the ways of the world and her place in it. These passages can be interesting, even if they are a bit uncomfortable as they offer a voyeuristic view into a life being formed. It's obvious that Corrie loved to write, and aspired to be a "writer", and these rough sketches do show promise. But there's also a lot of fluff, and scribblings that read like a grocery list without context.
Early on the book is full of pre-adolescent poetry and wide eyed wonder...charming in it's way...but perhaps a bit more than I could stomach at times.
Overall, I think this book would have been more interesting and perhaps more effective if it was composed in a way as to provide more context to the writings included. Perhaps some sort of journalistic biography included with Corrie's personal writings? Who knows? But at it's core this book underlines the tragedy of cutting short a life full of such promise, passion and compassion, and if all this accomplishes is to make the reader consider that loss more closely, and the countless others that go unnoticed everyday, then the effort is/was well worth it.
number9dream's review against another edition
4.0
I honestly didn't read it completely, and only skipped around until i got to her letters and diary entries from Gaza and her last few months. I would recommend it if you're not familiar with what's happening in occupied Palestine, as it's a first hand testimony of what an ethnic cleansing looks like, when Gaza was not freed yet and its inhabitants getting displaced for the umpteenth time. What is still happening now in the west bank, is what Rachel Corrie wrote about in 2003, and what ended her life.