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vivakresh's review against another edition
4.0
Really enjoyed the gentle memoir of one of the best current poets. Recommend highly!
jeannedes's review against another edition
4.0
Tracy Smith brought her lyrical sympathy with language to allow me into her young girls growing awarenes of the holding of two sensibilities in one's mind: holding the deep weight and losses of history alongside every day, ordinary life.
This short memoir exploring a daughter's relationship to her tower-of-strength, Southern-raised mother pulled me along, wanting to know what's next In this little girl's growth. And, caused me frequently to stop to contemplate the beauty of the writing and the new ways of seeing the world with that other sensibility, a young black girl growing up in a white-defined world..
This short memoir exploring a daughter's relationship to her tower-of-strength, Southern-raised mother pulled me along, wanting to know what's next In this little girl's growth. And, caused me frequently to stop to contemplate the beauty of the writing and the new ways of seeing the world with that other sensibility, a young black girl growing up in a white-defined world..
plantonic_friendships's review against another edition
4.0
It was beautifully written. But if I'm being honest, Tracy led a happy sheltered unspectular life. She's a poet laureate and Pulitzer Winner, yet this memoir was rather flat. Yes, losing one's mother is absolutely heartbreaking...but pretty ordinary. Nothing big happened that led to her becoming this acclaimed poet, she's just very fortunate in life.
It wasn't to say she didn't go through bad times, but that the bad times didn't persist and she was able to move past them and continue to be successful. Her relationship with her teacher was rather horrifying and the way it was talked about made it seem far less of an issue than it was. Or maybe it was just a blimp of a situation?
But I digress.
Frankly, I'm happy that a black woman was able to write about her charmed life where little shifted and she wasn't down and out.
It might not have made for an exciting or impactful memoir, but it was still a very beautifully written memoir about a beautiful life and family.
It wasn't to say she didn't go through bad times, but that the bad times didn't persist and she was able to move past them and continue to be successful. Her relationship with her teacher was rather horrifying and the way it was talked about made it seem far less of an issue than it was. Or maybe it was just a blimp of a situation?
But I digress.
Frankly, I'm happy that a black woman was able to write about her charmed life where little shifted and she wasn't down and out.
It might not have made for an exciting or impactful memoir, but it was still a very beautifully written memoir about a beautiful life and family.
thatagat's review against another edition
3.5
I recently lost my gran, and the way Smith writes about her mother's death offered me comfort.
simplymeg's review against another edition
4.0
The author is a (Pulitzer Prize-winning) poet, so not surprisingly she has a great command of language. Despite differences in age, geography and ethnicity, there was a lot of commonality between her experiences and mine. A lot of interesting reflections on faith.
rmardel's review against another edition
4.0
One of Smith's gifts seems to be in shining light on how the ordinary is, in and of itself, extraordinary.