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A review by khaufnaak
Love Is an Ex-Country by Randa Jarrar
3.0
2 and 4 stars at the same time. The writing is dry, reflections on war are jarringly juxtaposed with recollections of sex. An oddly Freudian memoir. This is the author’s memoir, and the cross-country aspect is not incredibly pertinent. So, it is incredibly difficult to review, because this is not just a book, this is the story of a real person’s life.
2 stars because, I cringed a lot, especially in the beginning. Because of the war next to the sex, because she seemed like the mocked at caricature of the liberal. Very sensitive, often lamenting, and living rather lavishly. As the memoir continued, these things because contextualized. She was not living lavishly, she was not wealthy, she just enjoyed things sometimes. And maybe she is so sensitive because she has suffered so much. The sex was next to the violence because they were so tightly intertwined for her.
4 stars because, I see myself in her. In many ways, I could’ve been her, I could become her. The details of child abuse, pregnancy, domestic abuse. The desire for her parents’ love, how she reconnects with them in the end. The sense of hope that her family eventually sort of accepted her. I did get tears in my eyes at the end.
2 stars because, I cringed a lot, especially in the beginning. Because of the war next to the sex, because she seemed like the mocked at caricature of the liberal. Very sensitive, often lamenting, and living rather lavishly. As the memoir continued, these things because contextualized. She was not living lavishly, she was not wealthy, she just enjoyed things sometimes. And maybe she is so sensitive because she has suffered so much. The sex was next to the violence because they were so tightly intertwined for her.
4 stars because, I see myself in her. In many ways, I could’ve been her, I could become her. The details of child abuse, pregnancy, domestic abuse. The desire for her parents’ love, how she reconnects with them in the end. The sense of hope that her family eventually sort of accepted her. I did get tears in my eyes at the end.