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A review by rachelemm
The Things I Would Tell You: British Muslim Women Write by Sabrina Mahfouz
4.0
I read 'The Things I Would Tell You' as part of a buddy read with two friends. We split the book into four sections and over the course of four weeks discussed the stories and articles we read. I would highly recommend this as a way of consuming the book. Or, if you are not able to find a buddy, I would suggest reading the book slowly and giving yourself some time to really engage with the text and explore the themes in the book.
Like any anthology, there will be pieces that you connect with more than others. At first, I really struggled with the poems in the book. I have always found poetry difficult and have convinced myself that I just don't "get" it. However, because I knew I would be discussing the poems with my buddies I made more of effort to understand them and for the most part those efforts really paid off. We often found in our discussions that the poems were what we spent the most time discussing despite them being relatively short pieces.
The book covers themes you would expect from a book written by Muslim women such as racism, sexism and oppression but there are surprises in here too. Some of the stories are not about any of those issues at all and are just interesting stories about a group of characters. I loved those pieces in particular because they made a statement in and of themselves by telling the reader that just because the author is Muslim and female doesn't mean their art has to be defined by that fact.
Like any anthology, there will be pieces that you connect with more than others. At first, I really struggled with the poems in the book. I have always found poetry difficult and have convinced myself that I just don't "get" it. However, because I knew I would be discussing the poems with my buddies I made more of effort to understand them and for the most part those efforts really paid off. We often found in our discussions that the poems were what we spent the most time discussing despite them being relatively short pieces.
The book covers themes you would expect from a book written by Muslim women such as racism, sexism and oppression but there are surprises in here too. Some of the stories are not about any of those issues at all and are just interesting stories about a group of characters. I loved those pieces in particular because they made a statement in and of themselves by telling the reader that just because the author is Muslim and female doesn't mean their art has to be defined by that fact.