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dramandascott 's review for:
Heart Berries
by Terese Marie Mailhot
This memoir deals with some very difficult themes and interrogates colonialism in an individual way. I admired how it resisted a lot of the typical tropes of indigenous memoir. I love all of the classics in the genre (Momaday, Erdrich, etc) and think they say so many important things, but it’s also refreshing for someone to come in and talk about indigeneity from a different perspective that builds upon others’ work. The brevity and directness of this memoir seemed like a very brave and ideological choice. There was plenty of lyricism, but not much bulk. It left me wanting more, but also with the sense that Mailhot was giving me the parts of the story that she wanted me to have. There were some things that struck really close to home, like how Mailhot frames intrusive thought and the nonlinear nature of memory. The second person with which she refers to her past lover throughout the book was really gutting. It brings up discomfort for me to have her narrative directed to this person who had disrespected her, but it also felt very honest.