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bluestarfish's review
5.0
"Forgiveness is an exasperating, slippery subject for the simple reason that it means so many different things to different people: no one can quite agree on the meaning of this skill, gift, attribute, practice, state of mind - or however you chose to categorise forgiveness."
Marina Cantacuzina started collecting forgiveness stories in 2003 as a personal journalistic project. It eventually grew through The F Word exhibition into The Forgiveness Project charity to take the work further. Starting from the point of enquiry the stories collected and offered share a glimpse of the messy world of forgiveness and healing and empathy. It's a hard word, and not one that everyone finds meaningful or helpful, but the conversations around it are deep.
There are many, many stories here illuminating different aspects and many difficulties. There's no one answer and Canacuzina tries her best to emphasise that there can be no one answer. Instead there are different options, and often ones that we don't hear about very often. I deliberately chose to start reading this after I had finished a revenge drama on Netflix that was enthralling and compelling and reacting to some horrific ills, and also showed some of the thrills and sorrow and hurt of revenge. Obviously I was already interested in the Forgiveness Project and curious about it since I had the book, but there was also a part of me reacting to the other story I had just witnessed. The whatifs and wonderings...
"Stories are the secret reservoir of values: change the stories individuals and nations live by and tell themselves, and you change the individuals and nations." - Ben Okri
Marina Cantacuzina started collecting forgiveness stories in 2003 as a personal journalistic project. It eventually grew through The F Word exhibition into The Forgiveness Project charity to take the work further. Starting from the point of enquiry the stories collected and offered share a glimpse of the messy world of forgiveness and healing and empathy. It's a hard word, and not one that everyone finds meaningful or helpful, but the conversations around it are deep.
There are many, many stories here illuminating different aspects and many difficulties. There's no one answer and Canacuzina tries her best to emphasise that there can be no one answer. Instead there are different options, and often ones that we don't hear about very often. I deliberately chose to start reading this after I had finished a revenge drama on Netflix that was enthralling and compelling and reacting to some horrific ills, and also showed some of the thrills and sorrow and hurt of revenge. Obviously I was already interested in the Forgiveness Project and curious about it since I had the book, but there was also a part of me reacting to the other story I had just witnessed. The whatifs and wonderings...
"Stories are the secret reservoir of values: change the stories individuals and nations live by and tell themselves, and you change the individuals and nations." - Ben Okri
mmis17's review
challenging
dark
reflective
sad
medium-paced
3.5
it was very good, lots of different ideas and interpretations covered in enough depth. by the end the structure got a bit repetitive, present idea, add example, explain move on but overall it was very interesting
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual assault, War, Rape, Murder, and Antisemitism
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