Reviews tagging 'Racial slurs'

Zami: A New Spelling of My Name: A Biomythography by Audre Lorde

17 reviews

dominic_t's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative inspiring reflective sad fast-paced

5.0

"Every woman I have ever loved has left her print upon me..."

This is an amazing book that transcends the memoir genre. Lorde calls it a biomythography, and that really fits. She centers her analysis of her life on her relationships with women and explores how each woman shaped her. Her writing is so vivid and provides a window into what life was like for gay-girls (her term) in the northeast US in the 40s and 50s. 

She wrote so beautifully about each relationship and really captured the experiences of infatuation, love, and heartbreak. I viscerally felt the highs and laws.

I also loved reading about the community of gay women she belonged to. It was a fascinating window into the past. She went into a lot of detail about her experience as a Black woman in a majority white community and explored the complexity of her friendships and relationships with white women. She also talked about her struggles to fit into the community as a woman who wasn't either butch or femme. I've read the perspectives of butches and femmes from communities like hers, and it was cool to get the perspective of someone who didn't fit in either role.

The progressive communities of that time were really homophobic and saw queerness as "bourgeoisie." In response to that, she wrote, "I didn’t know how I was going to bring my personal and political visions together, but I knew it had to be possible because I felt them both too strongly, and knew how much I needed them both to survive...Any world which did not have a place for me loving women was not a world in which I wanted to live, nor one which I could fight for." That quote deeply resonates with me. I can feel both her pain and her hope.

This is not an easy read. She covers abuse, bigotry, and suicide in detail. Even though the book was filled with tragedy, I ended the book feeling hopeful. Throughout everything, she had a vision of a better world, and I was able to see it too.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Homophobia, Lesbophobia, Physical abuse, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Child abuse, Sexual content, Alcoholism, Animal death, Alcohol, Racism, and Rape

Moderate: Cancer

Minor: Racial slurs

dreamweaver's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective slow-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content

Moderate: Racism, Racial slurs, and Cancer

Minor: Rape

christie_evelyn's review

emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism

Moderate: Sexual assault, Racial slurs, Child abuse, Abortion, and Suicide

Minor: Homophobia and Mental illness

michaelion's review against another edition

emotional informative tense medium-paced

4.25

she, and i cannot stress this enough, just like me. fr. minus the dating white women. but the circumstances surrounding that and explanations? wow! she just like me! fr!!!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Grief, Suicide, Xenophobia, and Racism

Moderate: Sexual assault, Child abuse, Ableism, Racial slurs, Child death, Homophobia, Lesbophobia, Drug use, Abortion, Sexual content, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Death of parent, and Self harm

Minor: Cultural appropriation, Mental illness, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Pedophilia, Cancer, Domestic abuse, Abandonment, Fatphobia, Outing, Infidelity, and Animal death

waytoomanybooks's review

adventurous challenging emotional reflective sad medium-paced

3.5

I’m so grateful that I was assigned this book in my Contemporary Queer Literature class. I have been meaning to read the works of Audre Lorde for a while, and I’m so glad I finally read Zami. It contains some of the most beautiful, thoughtful, challenging, descriptive prose I’ve ever read. It’s both deeply personal and deeply relatable in many aspects. Lorde leaves no stone unturned as she looks back at her life in the 30s, 40s, and 50s. We learn lessons right alongside her, and she is an excellent teacher and storyteller. This is an absolute must-read for anyone who wants to know more about queer history, Black history, feminism, and so much more. Her deep-dives into intersectionality are invaluable. You won’t be able to put this book down.

Please heed all the many, many content warnings I and others have tagged. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Child abuse, Body shaming, Lesbophobia, Abortion, Death, Fatphobia, Bullying, Classism, Infidelity, Grief, Domestic abuse, Misogyny, Suicide, Toxic friendship, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Ableism, Animal death, Child death, Homophobia, Death of parent, Sexual assault, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Self harm, Medical trauma, Suicidal thoughts, Mental illness, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual harassment, Rape, Sexual violence, Sexism, Sexual content, Violence, and Suicide attempt

lynnloveshobi's review

dark emotional inspiring reflective sad fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Abandonment, Classism, Grief, Bullying, Panic attacks/disorders, Pregnancy, Rape, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexism, Death, Infidelity, Lesbophobia, Self harm, Homophobia, Misogyny, Alcoholism, Animal death, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Toxic relationship, Alcohol, Racial slurs, Abortion, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Addiction

littlesmaug's review against another edition

emotional inspiring reflective medium-paced

5.0

Without any irony, Audre Lorde's words feel like poetry, even when it is not poetry she is specifically creating. I feel a heavy sadness that I could not live in this world at the same time as her and that her work for her community goes so unnoticed in ways I find inconceivable. But truly, this book was a beautiful and aching masterpiece that I'm honored to have finally read. I recommend this, wholeheartedly, to anyone looking to dive into Lorde's literary works or her life in general.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Lesbophobia, Racism, Racial slurs, and Homophobia

Moderate: Rape

addyruth17's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative inspiring reflective slow-paced

4.25

Such a fascinating life, and a delectable poetic voice.  I was writing down quotes and annotating like crazy.  A bit slow and perhaps unsettled in the timeline, but worth it for the insight into the Black lesbian 1940s/50s experience, and the gorgeous descriptions of loving women.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abortion, Sexual content, and Suicide

Moderate: Death, Racism, Alcohol, Rape, and Lesbophobia

Minor: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Drug use, Animal death, Blood, Fatphobia, Racial slurs, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Self harm, Sexism, and Toxic relationship

zombiezami's review

adventurous emotional hopeful informative reflective medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abortion, Racism, Sexual content, Self harm, Sexism, Animal death, Death, Child abuse, Alcohol, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Grief, Classism, Blood, Alcoholism, Lesbophobia, Homophobia, Racial slurs, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, and Misogyny

Moderate: Bullying, Ableism, Drug use, Mental illness, Cursing, Fatphobia, Body shaming, Infidelity, Death of parent, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Forced institutionalization

Minor: Vomit, War, Trafficking, Cancer, and Slavery

Colorism

davidup_15's review

challenging emotional inspiring reflective sad slow-paced

3.0

Lorde's story is very, very inspirational, and there were quite a few moments that genuinely, genuinely hurt - on top of that, she does write absolutely beautifully. I personally didn't love this book, I think because it was a little too slow paced for my liking and didn't seem to deliver much of a coherent message, but that's very subjective to me - I am very, very glad that Lorde wrote the way she did, and about the subjects that she did, at the time that she did.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual assault, and Domestic abuse