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A review by citrus_seasalt
Bless the Blood: A Cancer Memoir by Walela Nehanda
5.0
When I tell you this book left me BREATHLESS!!đđđTHIS. This is what novels in-verse are made to be like. Iâve never read a memoir in verse before, but I am so thankful I did because it added a much-needed layer of creativity and emotion to the format.
Besides being about cancer, Nehanda uses vivid, raw poetry to tell all of the other parts that come with it: The threat of their mortality, how living with chronic illness has affected their relationships with others(for better and for worse), dealing with how the intersections of their identityâbeing Black, fat, disabled and queerâmake them even more vulnerable within the American healthcare system, and shape their experience. It also shows the relationships they have with their family and generational history (especially in the wake of their diagnosis), from the complicated one with their parents(and how, to an extent, dealing with that abuse shaped their relationship with Ivie), to Nehanda connecting with their ancestors as part of their healing(which I thought was especially interesting!). And this was surprisingly introspective, for a debut from a young author??
Although others might find it a little disjointing, I also loved the switch between the free verse, and the bouts of poetic novel writing! The authorâs craftsmanship really shines through that, imo.
âBless The Bloodâ is definitely a heavy read. But I definitely wonât be forgetting a narrative voice such as this one. I canât recommend this enough, and I am eager to see what else Walela Nehanda will write.
A few quotes I liked(and would have snapped my fingers in response in place of clapping, if I had heard them said as slam poetry):
âPierce through his classism,
Besides being about cancer, Nehanda uses vivid, raw poetry to tell all of the other parts that come with it: The threat of their mortality, how living with chronic illness has affected their relationships with others(for better and for worse), dealing with how the intersections of their identityâbeing Black, fat, disabled and queerâmake them even more vulnerable within the American healthcare system, and shape their experience. It also shows the relationships they have with their family and generational history (especially in the wake of their diagnosis), from the complicated one with their parents(and how, to an extent, dealing with that abuse shaped their relationship with Ivie), to Nehanda connecting with their ancestors as part of their healing(which I thought was especially interesting!). And this was surprisingly introspective, for a debut from a young author??
Although others might find it a little disjointing, I also loved the switch between the free verse, and the bouts of poetic novel writing! The authorâs craftsmanship really shines through that, imo.
âBless The Bloodâ is definitely a heavy read. But I definitely wonât be forgetting a narrative voice such as this one. I canât recommend this enough, and I am eager to see what else Walela Nehanda will write.
A few quotes I liked(and would have snapped my fingers in response in place of clapping, if I had heard them said as slam poetry):
âPierce through his classism,
âthese poor people need help,â
reminding him:
a doctor not in service
to the people
is in service to his ego,
the morgue,
and a checkbook.â
âItâs all about acknowledging the irony that in some ways,
my cancer saved me, because did you know it is actually really so fucking terrifying being invested in living?â
â-see how even in death, you can't acknowledge a young
Black person is gone and your white ass can't respect us,
But go ahead, turn up your -I mean our-music.
âItâs all about acknowledging the irony that in some ways,
my cancer saved me, because did you know it is actually really so fucking terrifying being invested in living?â
â-see how even in death, you can't acknowledge a young
Black person is gone and your white ass can't respect us,
But go ahead, turn up your -I mean our-music.
Sit at your nice dining table in a condo in a Gotham-Lookin' city and bop yo head to it. Forgettin' how history repeats itself. You are a spectator, our life a battle royale.
Holding us in your phone like a snow globe.
Too enchanted with our culture to realize there are cremated ashes fallin' out the bottom.â
âMaybe, if the cancer leaves,
maybe that apathetic side of my lover will rip itself
out and walk out the hospital with the leukemia.
I did agree to forever. I did promise my best.
In sickness and in health. Lover, you havenât met me in health.â
âMaybe, if the cancer leaves,
maybe that apathetic side of my lover will rip itself
out and walk out the hospital with the leukemia.
I did agree to forever. I did promise my best.
In sickness and in health. Lover, you havenât met me in health.â