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ilovestory's review against another edition
5.0
I loved this book. She speaks of my experience, of the ways in which culture has worked to silence my voice, of my fears. I checked this out of the library but I ordered my own copy today because I cannot bear to let this go, I am not yet ready to let it go as I still have more to absorb from it, and I want to mark it up and highlight it and let it all fully soak in.
cartermon4's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexism, Racism, and Misogyny
Moderate: War, Violence, Rape, Colonisation, Grief, Toxic relationship, Sexual assault, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Domestic abuse, Sexual harassment, and Death
Minor: Murder
rjsreadingnook's review against another edition
5.0
This is the first book I’ve read of Rebecca Solnit, but I want to get my hands on more of her work especially her essay “Men Explain Things to Me,” which inspired the coining of the term “mansplaining.”
This is a mesmerizing collection of essays that explore and meander through topics such as misogyny, domestic abuse, street harassment, intersectional feminism, coming of age in San Francisco, the influence of urban life, the influence of gay men, drag queens and queer culture. She also recounts her experiences with environmentalism.
Solnit is honest, open and frank, owning her past mistakes of overlooking Native Americans and their unheard cries of environmentalism.
Her writing style is captivating, and I found myself rereading passages especially the meta ones on writing, reading and researching.
Excellent collection, and I highly recommend it.
Thank you to Viking and Penguin Random House for the gifted copy.
This is a mesmerizing collection of essays that explore and meander through topics such as misogyny, domestic abuse, street harassment, intersectional feminism, coming of age in San Francisco, the influence of urban life, the influence of gay men, drag queens and queer culture. She also recounts her experiences with environmentalism.
Solnit is honest, open and frank, owning her past mistakes of overlooking Native Americans and their unheard cries of environmentalism.
Her writing style is captivating, and I found myself rereading passages especially the meta ones on writing, reading and researching.
Excellent collection, and I highly recommend it.
Thank you to Viking and Penguin Random House for the gifted copy.
terrypaulpearce's review against another edition
5.0
Probably the best autobiographical work I've ever read. Just so thought-provoking: she makes me see the world in different ways.
And her audiobook narration is fabulous. I'm now going to go and read everything she's written.
And her audiobook narration is fabulous. I'm now going to go and read everything she's written.
aqilahreads's review against another edition
2.0
full of short vignettes; this is not a typical kind of memoir where it would share more on the author's life but more of on a feminist evolution.
felt that it started off well but i just couldnt get into it on several parts - things started to be a lil messy but i guess the book is meant to be read as stand alone essays. no doubt that it was written oh so beautifully though but expected more coming from a memoir. felt that theres something missing...wished it has more stories especially on the author's background & experiences.
felt that it started off well but i just couldnt get into it on several parts - things started to be a lil messy but i guess the book is meant to be read as stand alone essays. no doubt that it was written oh so beautifully though but expected more coming from a memoir. felt that theres something missing...wished it has more stories especially on the author's background & experiences.
meghan111's review against another edition
4.0
What do you need to have a voice in the world? How do you have a voice in politics, your personal life, professionally, when you talk about what you experience in the world? This book articulates it well:
Audibility - people listen when you speak or write.
Credibility - people believe your experiences happened. people believe your expertise.
Consequence - your words don't disappear into a void. you have efficacy.
"In some parts of the world, a wife is still property under the law, and others choose her husband. To be a person of no consequence, to speak without power, is a bewilderingly awful condition, as though you were a ghost, a beast, as though words died in your mouth, as though sound no longer traveled. It is almost worst to say something and have it not matter than to be silenced."
Audibility - people listen when you speak or write.
Credibility - people believe your experiences happened. people believe your expertise.
Consequence - your words don't disappear into a void. you have efficacy.
"In some parts of the world, a wife is still property under the law, and others choose her husband. To be a person of no consequence, to speak without power, is a bewilderingly awful condition, as though you were a ghost, a beast, as though words died in your mouth, as though sound no longer traveled. It is almost worst to say something and have it not matter than to be silenced."
mmardybum's review against another edition
yall should always listen to the stars.
what is armor after all but a cage that moves with you.
also,
what is armor after all but a cage that moves with you.
also,
Spoiler
things are one way, then another. and the transitions are hard to mark. the present becomes the past through increments too small to measure. suddenly something that is, becomes something that was, and the way we live is not the way we lived.Spoiler
you dont really know what you do when you write, because it depends on how people read.arielamandah's review against another edition
4.0
Recollections of My Non-Existence was a masterful memoir, threading many of the themes from her many other books throughout its pages. I find so much of what Solnit writes here deeply relatable. Her stories of being a young woman, on her own, living in the world, battling back fear. Of the physical threat’s immediacy fading, only to be replaced by disrespect and disregard. Of the beauty and the frustration of “nonexistence.” Yes, yes, yes. She poses so many buried questions, deeply-felt aggravations, and brushed-off sleights making them feel stingingly new. As she says about the tale-tellers of certain crimes and traumas: they will keep telling their story again and again until they feel heard... hearing Solnit describe these anxieties and fears and angers makes ME feel seen and heard - even though I’m not the one telling the story.