smuds2 's review for:

Nothing More to Lose by Najwan Darwish

3.0

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I often do not know how to handle experiencing the inner yuck I feel when I read poetry from people who have been oppressed when that poetry only landed in front of me BECAUSE they are oppressed. Am I reading in solidarity? What does that mean? Am I reading to understand their experience? Do I think I can genuinely understand that experience by just reading a book of poetry? What am I reading it for?

Often, that internal yuck gets in the way of being able to actually understand the poetry as a poetic experience in itself. It gets bogged down by all the social baggage I bring to the table which I think occludes my ability to judge it in any meaningful sense of the word.

All that being said, there are some poems in this collection that I felt really DID transcend beyond that inner yuck. Specifically, when Darwish discussed the oppression of all arab peoples through time and space (and, by extension, all peoples everywhere). When he talked in ways I could relate to about how israeli occupation has impacted his psyche (thinking here about Phobio) and when he used some imagery that didn't exactly move my mind but moved my stomach (Thinking here about Trees).

I would recommend this book in the same way I would recommed other Palestinian poets at this time -- I don't know what you will get out of this, but Palestinians are experiencing a uniquely horrifying degree of oppression and I think it's important that we at least witness it and recognize we have nothing useful to say about how they should or should not act - and merely to appreciate that art and beauty come still emerge through the pavement in such a situation.