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A review by dreamgalaxies
Carry: A Memoir of Survival on Stolen Land by Toni Jensen
4.0
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Content warnings are, as always, at the bottom.
“It’s okay, I’ve learned, to love the things that make you, even if they’re also the things that unmake you.”
This book is not a chronological memoir, which may upset the expectations of some. It's more of a book of essays organized by theme--but the themes sort of bleed into one another, and the organization is honestly a bit chaotic. Certain events show up multiple times in the narrative while others are sort of skated over. Beyond this, there are certain structural and stylistic choices that didn't really work for me here--the dictionary definitions, for example, and the parallel narratives of Jensen's experiences juxtaposed with those of Black Americans, which didn't dwell enough on any of those people to give a strong impression in my opinion.
The content, however, is timely, thought-provoking, and heart-wrenching. Jensen tells stories about her experiences with violence and poverty living all over the US, including in her family home. This book is much less about the experience of living as an Indigenous person in the United States than I imagined, and is more a meditation on striving toward whiteness and what white culture in America, in fact, looks like--which can be strongly relatable for people from a variety of cultural backgrounds.
There are some really strong and important threads here about alcoholism and domestic violence, especially, that I think would make great reading in certain classes. Her descriptions of her interpersonal relationships with her family and with her partners is beautifully rendered and painfully relatable.
CWs: so many. gun violence, police brutality, child abuse (physical/emotional), animal abuse, alcoholism, racism, sexual assault, murder, suicide, trauma.
Content warnings are, as always, at the bottom.
“It’s okay, I’ve learned, to love the things that make you, even if they’re also the things that unmake you.”
This book is not a chronological memoir, which may upset the expectations of some. It's more of a book of essays organized by theme--but the themes sort of bleed into one another, and the organization is honestly a bit chaotic. Certain events show up multiple times in the narrative while others are sort of skated over. Beyond this, there are certain structural and stylistic choices that didn't really work for me here--the dictionary definitions, for example, and the parallel narratives of Jensen's experiences juxtaposed with those of Black Americans, which didn't dwell enough on any of those people to give a strong impression in my opinion.
The content, however, is timely, thought-provoking, and heart-wrenching. Jensen tells stories about her experiences with violence and poverty living all over the US, including in her family home. This book is much less about the experience of living as an Indigenous person in the United States than I imagined, and is more a meditation on striving toward whiteness and what white culture in America, in fact, looks like--which can be strongly relatable for people from a variety of cultural backgrounds.
There are some really strong and important threads here about alcoholism and domestic violence, especially, that I think would make great reading in certain classes. Her descriptions of her interpersonal relationships with her family and with her partners is beautifully rendered and painfully relatable.
CWs: so many. gun violence, police brutality, child abuse (physical/emotional), animal abuse, alcoholism, racism, sexual assault, murder, suicide, trauma.