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A review by readingspells
A Flat Place by Noreen Masud
challenging
dark
informative
medium-paced
4.0
I can totally see why this was nominated for the Women's Prize for Non-fiction. It is a powerful and immersive memoir about Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, Race, Identity and flat landscapes.
I really wasn't sure what to expect with this book and even now I have read it (listened to it) I find it hard to explain it. It is deeply personal and intense work, that picks apart these subjects and how healing or at least some sort of connection and love can be found in places and also in objects. Oh and animals too, the parts about her cat really resonated with me too. That odd bond and connection with a pet that can be hard to explain to someone who has not experienced it.
The authors raw and brutal words about racism in the UK were really powerful. Her stripping away of the fantasy of colonialism for the reality of it's damage and violence and how that lingers in modern Briton today made me yet again realise that our failure to teach the realities of this in schools is a woeful thing.
I don't think this book deserves to win the Women's prize, I still believe that should be Doppelganger but it definitely deserves its place on the short list and I highly recommend it.
"Britain lives in terrible denial, I know now, of a history it can’t admit to. And it survives that denial by indicating to people of colour, very subtly, very passively, that they shouldn’t think of themselves as real. Because if no one real was hurt, then no real harm has been done.”
― Noreen Masud
I really wasn't sure what to expect with this book and even now I have read it (listened to it) I find it hard to explain it. It is deeply personal and intense work, that picks apart these subjects and how healing or at least some sort of connection and love can be found in places and also in objects. Oh and animals too, the parts about her cat really resonated with me too. That odd bond and connection with a pet that can be hard to explain to someone who has not experienced it.
The authors raw and brutal words about racism in the UK were really powerful. Her stripping away of the fantasy of colonialism for the reality of it's damage and violence and how that lingers in modern Briton today made me yet again realise that our failure to teach the realities of this in schools is a woeful thing.
I don't think this book deserves to win the Women's prize, I still believe that should be Doppelganger but it definitely deserves its place on the short list and I highly recommend it.
"Britain lives in terrible denial, I know now, of a history it can’t admit to. And it survives that denial by indicating to people of colour, very subtly, very passively, that they shouldn’t think of themselves as real. Because if no one real was hurt, then no real harm has been done.”
― Noreen Masud