A review by serendipitysbooks
How to Say Babylon by Safiya Sinclair

emotional informative reflective medium-paced

4.75

 How to Say Babylon is a memoir about the author growing up in a Rastafarian family in Jamaica, suffering at the hands of an increasingly abusive father, and then finally figuring out who she is, developing her own voice, and finding a way out. The story was interesting, particularly the insights into Rastafarianism which is a belief system I know little about, and has some obvious parallels to Educated. Definitely a hard read in places with physical and emotional abuse, controlling behaviour and gaslighting. What really stood out though was the writing which was phenomenal - lush, lyrical and evocative. I went into this book blind but within the first paragraph it was obvious that that author was a poet. The audio, narrated by her, was also excellent with the rhythm of the language really coming through. The book was a real pleasure to listen to but it also left me with plenty to think about - things like the intersections between religion and men trying to control women, the difficulty of escaping a traumatic upbringing, the factors that enable some people to succeed in a world that they’d been led to belief was evil, the ability to forgive, and the healing power of writing and of poetry. 
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