Przełomy

by Julietta Singh, Aleksandra Szymczyk (Translator)

Przełomy to poruszający esej w formie listu do córki, w którym autorka opowiada o dziedzictwie kolonializmu, queerowym rodzicielstwie, istocie wspólnoty, ekstraktywnej naturze kapitalizmu i katastrofie klimatycznej. Matkowanie w kończącym się świecie to według Singh nieustanne balansowanie pomiędzy pragnieniem zapewnienia bezpieczeństwa swojemu dziecku a chęcią budowania w nim głębokiej świadomości problemów, z którymi boryka się ludzkość. Intymne konwersacje autorki z jej córką ujawniają, w jak wielkim stopniu nasze przetrwanie zależy od zerwania z opowieściami generowanymi przez dominujący imperialno-kolonialny porządek i zwrócenia się ku czułym i odważnym wizjom przyszłości, wolnym od systemowej opresji. Przełomy podążają za epistolarną tradycją w duchu Jamesa Baldwina i Ta‑Nehisi Coatesa, poszerzając ją o perspektywę oraz doświadczenie Śniadych feministek.

Genres: Nonfiction, Essays, Memoir, Queer, Feminism, LGBT, Politics

176 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2021

About the author

Julietta Singh is Associate Professor of English at the University of Richmond. She is a writer and academic who works at the intersections of postcolonial studies, feminist and queer theory, and the environmental humanities. She is the author of Unthinking Mastery: Dehumanism and Decolonial Entanglements (Duke University Press, 2018), and No Archive Will Restore You (Punctum Books, 2018). Her academic writing has been published in leading cultural theory journals including South Atlantic Quarterly, Cultural Critique, Studies in Gender and Sexuality, Symploke, and the Journal of Postcolonial Writing. Her creative work has appeared in venues such as American Poetry Review, Animal Shelter, Prairie Fire, Social Text, and Women & Performance.

Reviews

[Tomasz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pięknie napisany, pełen wielu ciekawych idei list matki do córki, w którym poruszone zostają przeróżne tematy orbitujące wokół kapitalizmu, rasizmu, kolonializmu czy katastrofy klimatycznej. Zdecydowanie skłaniające do refleksji nad obecnym stanem świata.

[Carolyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Literacko mi się podobało, ale wolałabym zobaczyć dobrowolnie turniej w lolu niż zapalić skuna z autorką

[Tala🦈 (mrs.skywalker.reads) · Rating 5 out of 5]

trafia prosto do serca i książek życia

[Laila Alodaat · Rating 5 out of 5]

A marvellous book, my first of Julietta Singh and definitely not the last. I’m grateful at being given the chance to join her most intimate experience of rising a child in todays world. She combined in this book solid ideological reflections with highly emotional experiences of grounding a mixed race child in a world that is designed to disorientate her. As I embark on my own mothering journey, this book has touched me deeper than I thought possible, I learned from her courage, doubts and imperfections and I gathered the strength to reflect on experiences I had thought are best left to the past. Get this book, read it and share it with all the wonderful parents out there who are working to raise children and create, with them, a better world for us all.

[kamila.czyta · Rating 5 out of 5]

Piękny i czuły list do córki, świetne współbycie

[Areeb Ahmad (Bankrupt_Bookworm) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Early on, Julietta Singh outlines her place as a mother being this "endless task of reading narratives against the grain, of resisting the mainstream's consumptive ease." The formal conceit of the book may be a letter to her kid daughter, she quickly distances herself enough to not simplify ideas and make it seem as if the reader is being talked down to like a child. So the voice matures, the "you" address is used less frequently & the 'narrative' explores the state of the world.

I'm inclined to call it a book-length memoiristic essay than a letter, focusing on the importance of radical re-visioning of our social relations. The title refers of course to breaking away from the norm, the status quo, but is also a reference to her spinal injuries that recur due to a childhood accident. It is an exhortation as well to her daughter to break "with" her rather than "from" her while trying to forge her own path in the future. A break from the humdrum, routine, mundane.

Singh talks about her white Jewish mother & brown Punjabi father. She looks at her unique parenting experiences with her partner, how they transform the spaces & relationships they inhabit in fresh, queer ways & how they strive towards change while being in a state of anxiety. Singh does tend to go on tangents, loses focus. While she proposes solutions, they tilt towards slightly naive idealism that is perhaps not realistically achievable but I don't fault her for thinking big. I definitely appreciate her self-reflexivity and self-awareness.



(I received an advanced reading copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.)

[Patrycja Krotowska · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jedna z najlepszych i ulubionych książek tego roku. "Przełomy" to sugestywny, świetlisty, przejmujący esej napisany w formie listu do 6-letniej córki. O tożsamości rasowej, seksualnej, wspólnotowej. O rodzicielstwie w czasach katastrof politycznych, klimatycznych, kulturowych. O odsuwaniu się od dziedziczonego systemowo punktu widzenia na temat rasy, kolonializmu, edukacji, kapitalizmu, rodziny. O ciele, jego uszkodzeniach i procesie zdrowienia.

Dla mnie przede wszystkich jednak: o byciu matką, macierzyństwie w czasach niepewności, macierzyństwie świadomym, o radykalnej miłości do dziecka, różnych zabarwieniach i przedmiotach lęku, o konieczności rozluźniania więzi w procesie rozwoju. Niesamowicie podobał mi się sposób, w jaki Singh pisze o macierzyństwie. Jak miesza się w tych refleksjach świadomość z niewiedzą, przeszłość z przyszłością, niepokój z podekscytowaniem, nauczanie z uczeniem się. Jak skala mikro uzupełnia, ale i kłóci się ze skalą makro.

Bardzo odświeżająca, błyskotliwa i serwująca pole do osobistych powiązań lektura. Odnalazłam w niej niektóre z moich własnych lęków, niepewności i obaw, co było dość krzepiącym doświadczeniem. Wnikliwe studium naszych czasów z perspektywy matki.

[Maia · Rating 5 out of 5]

A short, powerful essay written in the form of a letter to the author's six year old daughter. Following in the footsteps of James Baldwin and Ta-Nehisi Coates, Julietta Singh writes to a young person of color growing up in America, with all of its racist and colonial history. This book weaves Singh's memories of a painful childhood injury into thoughts on body trauma and recovery, harassment by TSA into surviving political and ecological disasters, attending protests in her home city of Richmond, Virginia with an anti-racist counter-education for her child. Singh lives her feminist politics every day in a queer family experimenting with communal living, folding ethics into pedagogy, building human connection under extractive capitalism. I loved this book. Reading it expanded my thoughts in a similar way as some of my favorite podcasts Secret Feminist Agenda and Witch, Please. It made me think about how I'd like to live in relation to others in the future, it gave me hope, it confronted me with new ideas and underlined others I had already encountered. I soaked in the 150 pages in just two days and was left wanting more.

[Jowix · Rating 4 out of 5]

4+
Wzrusz

[soph · Rating 5 out of 5]

a stunning book, full of precious insights and life. this memoir brings light to Singh’s experiences with identity, whether that’s racial, sexual, cultural, personal or communal. her writing is luminous and i was moved deeply throughout this book. the depictions of family and motherhood, of activism and hope in the face of darkness make this book truly wonderful. please read this

‘We are each our mothers’ daughters, let loose in the world to heal and to offer healing, to build from the weight and wonder of the women who made us and who let us go.’

[prozaicznapoezja · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cóż to za wspaniały zbiór przemyśleń autorki, skierowany do jej córki. Julietta Singh opowiada o macierzyństwie świadomym, o uwikłaniu relacyjności w kapitalizm i katastrofę klimatyczną. Autorka zwraca się ku czułości, ma świadomość funkcjonowania w imperialno-kolonialnym porządku, ale szuka w nim szczelin i pęknięć - tworzy queerową rodzinę, zabiera córkę na protesty, a jednocześnie uczy ją budowania relacji z Innymi, nie tylko tymi ludzkimi.

[Elwira Księgarka na regale · Rating 5 out of 5]

„Podczas zeszłorocznych przygotowań do Święta Dziękczynienia usłyszałaś w szkole wybieloną wersję historii, jak to pierwsi ludzie zamieszkujący te tereny w imię cywilizacji i postępu radośnie oddawali Europejczykom swoje święte ziemie w konsumpcyjne władanie. Wróciłaś ze szkoły do domu, otworzyłaś plecak i wyjęłaś z niego - dumna niczym wielka artystka - malowankę, którą sama pokolorowałaś i zszyłaś. Twoja nauczycielka poprosiła Cię, byś wypełniła kolorem obrazki przedstawiające małą Rdzenną Amerykankę i małego Rdzennego Amerykanina, po których przyszła kolej na małych pielgrzymów, również chłopca i dziewczynkę, odzianych w tradycyjne stroje. Powiedziałam kunszt stworzonej przez ciebie książeczki, zalewały mnie fale rodzicielskiej dumy, bo oto dostałam dowód na to, że moje potomstwo funkcjonuje i tworzy w świecie gdzieś poza mną. I z niekłamaną przyjemnością zauważyłam, że pokolorowałaś wszystkie czworo dzieci na brązowo - były Śniade jak ty.”

Z natury staramy się chronić dzieci przed niewygodną prawdą. Rozkłada się nad nimi parasol, który ma wstrzymywać mroczne historie i uchronić je przed zmartwieniami, które przyniesie im dorosłość. Kiedy jednak córka Singh wraca ze szkoły i opowiada o losach „biednych pielgrzymów” po przybiciu do brzegu Ameryki Północnej, to jako matka, nie potrafi ona siedzieć cicho i przemilczeć prawdziwą historię pierwszych osadników. To wprowadzenie to idealny przedsmak tego, że czekają nas w tej lekturze dogłębne analizy oraz odważne sądy nad kondycją człowieka.

To, jak zaczynają się „Przełomy” Singh w świetnym tłumaczeniu Aleksandry Szymczyk sprawiło, że wiedziałam, że to coś dla mnie. „Przełomy” z pewnością będą budzić emocje oraz przemyślenia, okrzyki zgody, ale z pewnością też niezgody, bo w sposób przemyślany i bezkompromisowy wskazują na bolączki dzisiejszego świata.

Singh zdecydowała się ubrać swój esej w formę listu do swojej 6-letniej córki, co czyni go tym bardziej przejmującym, bo przecież, gdy przemawiamy do dzieci, to jednocześnie składamy jakąś obietnicę poprawy, przepraszamy za błędy, wskazujemy przewiny. Singh czyni to po mistrzowsku, rozprawia o kolonializmie, tożsamości rasowej oraz seksualnej, ale też queerowości oraz edukacji. Przede wszystkim jednak mówiąc o rodzicielstwie w dobie katastrofy klimatycznej czy politycznych niestabilności. Fenomen „Przełomów” i fakt, że wielu czytelników nazywa ją książką życia, wynika z wielu czynników, ale chyba najbardziej ze względu na to, że rezonuje ona z naszymi licznymi lękami, które współczesny świat podlewa.

W jednym z fragmentów autorka szykuje z małą córką plakat i wybiera się z nią na protest. „Przełomy” jawią się jako głośny sprzeciw i protest sam w sobie. Ta książka ma aktywistyczną mocną, obok której trudno przejść obojętnie.

Warto nadmienić, że to publikacja w nowym wydawnictwie Współbycie, które potwierdza swoją ciekawe pozycję na rynku i którą z zapartym tchem warto śledzić.

[Kate · Rating 5 out of 5]

I would give this book a million stars!

"Mothering at the end of the world is an infinite toggle between wanting to make you feel safe and needing you to know that the earth and its inhabitants are facing a catastrophic crisis." ~pg.9
•
🌿
Thoughts ~
An incredibly moving, utterly brilliant, most relevant read of mothering in a time of crisis.

Raising children in this world is tough, even pre pandemic. THE BREAKS is an evocative, poignant, intelligent, queer, feminist piece focusing on breaking from our inherited perspectives on race, environmental disasters, politics, capitalism, colonialism, and the need for radical thinking to give our children a better future, the future they deserve.

Singh deconstructs the sad, hard truths of our society and world with an honesty many will connect with. On mothering and the inner struggle to uphold righteousness in a world geared on whitness and colonialism. This is a letter to her six year old daughter, and her future self. Impossible beautiful and heartbreaking. It takes a lot to make me cry but Julietta Singh had me in tears. This is one of the best pieces on mothering you will ever read! Even though I am not a POC mother I felt this book so heavily and appreciated her words so very much. Please read this book.

Thank you to @coachhousebooks for gifting me this book.

For more of my book content check out instagram.com/bookalong

[martoushka · Rating 5 out of 5]

Piękna, mądra, świetnie napisana. I czuła.

[Naoto Sora · Rating 5 out of 5]

matczyne słowa, których wszyscy potrzebowaliśmy

[Amanda Spiegelberg · Rating 5 out of 5]

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ - 5 full stars - written as a letter to her daughter - “celebrates queer family-making, communal living, and Brown girlhood, complicating the stark binaries that shape contemporary US discourse. With nuance and generosity, Singh reveals the connections among the crises humanity faces—climate catastrophe, extractive capitalism, and the violent legacies of racism, patriarchy, and colonialism—inviting us to move through the breaks toward a tenable future.”

[Shweta Kulshreshtha · Rating 2 out of 5]

I gave up towards the end. I think it's crafted well but I don't seem to feel any connection to it. The transition between personal and ideological did not work for me. The anecdotes felt disconnected. Also, the conversation about race seemed performative. I gave up when she brings up how a taxi driver thanked her for participating in a protest about race. Also, the brown person's experience and the whole "brown is white" theme was very unrelatable. It's a Canadians lived experience in America who is coming to terms with their browness. It's fair and valid to explore those themes but it was hard for me to connect with that. It felt like an erasure. I struggled to understand the point the writer is trying to make.
Being brown is such a complicated identity. I think it's a tough subject to write about. I dont think this book was able to do that well.

[Kirsty · Rating 4 out of 5]

I spotted Julietta Singh’s memoir, The Breaks, whilst browsing on Daunt Books’ website, and just had to read it. The book has been published by Daunt as part of their Originals list, and it has been incredibly well received. In its blurb, reviewers compare it to James Baldwin’s A Letter to My Nephew, and herald it a tender, and ‘beautiful’ coming-of-age story.

The Breaks is an extended letter, written by Singh to her young daughter. Her aim is to ‘write towards a new vision of the world, inspired by her child’s radical embrace of possibility as a model for how we might live’. Wrapped up in the entire narrative is a commentary on the climate change which threatens our existence, and which she believes her daughter will experience the full effects of during her life. She says: ‘I am writing to you, and to future you. I am writing to the six-year-old girl you are now… I am writing to the becoming-being that you are, the one who will face a world in ruin and undoubtedly wonder over my place in all this destruction.’ Singh believes that if we are able, globally, to ‘survive the looming political and ecological disasters, we must break from the conventions we have inherited and begin to orient ourselves towards more equitable and revolutionary paths.’

Along with the ever-present threat of climate change, Singh also examines ‘the violent legacies of racism, patriarchy, and colonialism’, and the effects which all of these have already had in her daughter’s young life. The narrative opens with an account of her daughter being taught ‘a whitewashed story at school about how the first people of this land were happy to give their sacred spaces to the consumptive force of European men in the name of civilisation and progress.’ She proceeds to tell her daughter this story rather differently: ‘I will never forget the way you looked at me then, your head slightly tilted to one side, your eyes wide in bewilderment… This is not what my teacher told us, you said with unmistakable agitation. I know that for the first time you were confronting the existence of conflicting worldviews, a vital gulf between your formal education and your maternal one.’

Throughout, Singh has a real awareness of what ties herself to her daughter. She reflects, for instance: ‘Our blood is laced with modern histories of unbelievable violence. It is a strange and hybrid brew that you will feel in your body across your life, as I have always felt it in mine.’ Throughout, I really enjoyed her discussions about the physical body in the world, and the differing versions of history which can exist everywhere – in textbooks, in films and cartoons, and in the education system, to name just a few examples.

Another of the real strengths in The Breaks is the commentary Singh gives to the meaning of identity, and how difficult this can be to pin down. Her own family history is rich, and complicated. ‘Being as diasporic as we are,’ she says, ‘I find I have no traditional knowledge to bestow upon you, no single spiritual or cultural heritage that will reach back to precolonial ways of being and knowing.’ She writes about the ‘stolen lands’ where she was born, her father’s Indian heritage, her mother’s European one, and her experiences of growing up in Canada, before moving to the United States. For Singh, home is a concept which she has not often experienced; until she begins a deep friendship with a queer man, Nathan, who will become her daughter’s father. They live together, in a house converted to have two separate living spaces, and coparent. She writes: ‘I have only just begin to feel this home-feeling with you, with your father, in our everyday acts of collective world-making. For the first time, I wonder whether I need to stop drifting, not so much in body as in spirit… To live here, right where we are, and to articulate that living by learning who and how and when and why we have all come to live here, to belong here.’

Singh is open about the challenges of parenting her young daughter in their home in Richmond, Virginia. Early on in her memoir, she comments: ‘Learning to mother at the end of the world is an infinite toggle between wanting to make you feel safe and needing you to know that the earth and its inhabitants are facing a catastrophic crisis.’ She is also aware that one day, her relationship with her daughter will shift, inescapably; she writes: ‘It is less the inevitability of our break than it is the shape and force of it that haunts me. I know it is not just me you will need to break from, but the entire way of life that I represent… More than any other time in history, what you choose from the past will need to be meticulously studied and selected.’

These breaks which Singh talks about also manifest literally. Whilst writing her memoir, she was recovering from major surgery, when doctors found that the discs between her vertebrae had begun to ‘explode, making it appear… as though my body is being subjected to high-impact collisions.’

The Breaks is ‘both a celebration of queer family-making, communal living and Brown girlhood and a profound meditation on race, inheritance and queer mothering at the end of the world.’ Singh, as this quote on the book’s blurb suggests, encompasses so much within her book, but she does so with intelligence, and captures everything in beautiful, contemplative prose.

The Breaks is intense, intriguing, and so worthwhile. The narrative, given that it was only published in 2021, is incredibly current; she references other challenges which we face on a global scale, such as the pandemic. The way in Singh she directs her articulate speech to her daughter throughout gives it a further sense of urgency. Singh is articulate, and gives voice to the many difficulties which the next generation are sure to face. The Breaks is heavily rooted in existentialism, and what it means to be alive today. Singh gives just as much thought, though, to how – and if – we can possibly move forwards.

I will end this review with something wonderful that Singh’s daughter said, as quite a young child. At the age of five, she declared: ‘If I was president… I would give everyone a place to live for free. I would make gardens all throughout the city that would grow food to feed us all. I would give everyone enough clothes to wear, and make sure their outfits suited their style. I’d make sure everyone had a friend.’ If the next generation is filled with wonderfully compassionate people like this, perhaps the world does have a chance to save itself, after all.

[Agata · Rating 4 out of 5]

Przełomy to przybierające często formę listów eseje, które autorka kieruje do swojej wciąż małej córeczki. I chociaż nawiązuje do macierzyństwa, dużo więcej miejsca poświęca zagadnieniom pochodzenia, rodziny, tożsamości etnicznej, a także powolnemu wyniszczaniu planety przez człowieka. Julietta Singh jest akademiczką, feministką i krytyczką postkolonialną, jej spojrzenie na otaczającą ją rzeczywistość Stanów Zjednoczonych oraz Kanady przepełnia wrażliwość na inność, ale również niezgoda na systemowy rasizm oraz opresję. Pisze z czułością, uwagą, a że kieruje swoje słowa do córki, zawsze pamięta, by nakreślić szerszy kontekst, wskazać nie tyle interpretacyjne nurty, co sposoby, w jaki świat oddziałuje na ludzi o mieszanym pochodzeniu etnicznym. Zastanawia się, w jaki sposób zmiana myślenia o świecie, odrzucenie logiki kapitalizmu oraz powrót do wierzeń Pierwotnych Narodów mogłoby zapewnić nam przetrwanie, zredefiniować ten rozpadający się świat. To naprawdę fascynująca i niedługa lektura, również dla tych, co normalnie eseje omijają łukiem bądź w ogóle ich nie zauważają. Warto.

[kedziolka · Rating 5 out of 5]

Łyka się to jak gospel, bardzo przyjemnie się czyta, nawet jeśli nie do końca jest to moje odczuwanie świata i jego sobie opowiadanie. Wzruszająca odpowiedź na zarzuty antynatalistów, przejmujące świadectwo niemożliwości wypełnienia pragnienia miłości na dekolonialnych zasadach.

Rzeczywiście, "Następnym razem przyszedł pożar" (gra z Baldwinem u samej Singh również DLA MNIE niezwykle satysfakcjonująca)

Soon -> DKK Online <3

[Agnès · Rating 5 out of 5]

a must, everybody should read this at least once in their lifetime, extremely insightful and necessary and written in such a tender way that it is impossible not to love.

[Maria Helena · Rating 5 out of 5]

Czułość do dziecka.

[Khy Lovegood · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is like a letter I would write to my own daughter about how racism, ecological demise of the world, patriarchy and colonialism are the histories we brown women carry with us. A burden to have our histories and ways of living shunned in the capitalist world unless repurposed for monetary gain. This book means so much to me because it gives me hope to be a mother who is always reminding her daughter that everything is political when you’re not white and yet completely devoted to offer a safe base for her daughter to grow up around and explore the wonders of the world in the full knowledge of how cruel it can be.
Singh’s queer identity intertwining with the status quo of what it means to be a daughter, mother, friend and activist allowed me to explore my own reflections of an ally and such roles in my own life. I am glad I picked up this book on a suggestion of a friend who is no longer with me but will be whenever I read this again.

[Karol Kleczka · Rating 4 out of 5]

„Być może te wszystkie stronnice wypełniane listem do ciebie nie są niczym innym niż podarunkiem w formie czegoś, co sama chciałam dostać – słów umożliwiających podróż poprzez genealogie różnicy. (…) Mapą, która przybliży cię ku innym możliwym światom” – pisze do swej córki Julietta Singh w „Przełomach”, przepełnionym emocjami eseju o macierzyństwie w kończącym się świecie.

Singh przywołuje tradycję epistolarnych manifestów, w których dziecko jest pośrednim adresatem. Pisząc do kilkuletniej córki, autorka czyni z niej zwierciadło, w jakim odbijają się jej własne lęki, marzenia i pytania. Jest śniadą matką w białym społeczeństwie, więc opowiada dziecku historię rasowej przemocy, wstydu pochodzenia i politycznej walki, zarówno w przestrzeni osobistej, jak i publicznej. To matka-rebeliantka, a prowadzona przez nią rewolucja ma służyć „życiu jako takiemu” – macierzyństwo nie jest tu zawężone do relacji prywatnej, lecz staje się postawą publicznej troski o całą ludzkość.

Macierzyństwo jest strategią przetrwania w świecie pełnym przemocy i naznaczonym środowiskową katastrofą. Przejawem tej troski jest snucie opowieści. Singh jako matka bierze na siebie obowiązek opowiedzenia córce historii inaczej, w niebiały sposób, bo z tych „innych historii możemy się nauczyć, jak dalej żyć”. Przełomy przyjmują tym samym funkcję profetyczną, miejscami głos autorki uderza w dość pompatyczne tony, ale też tematyka jest jak najpoważniejsza.

To książka wielowątkowa i intelektualnie pobudzająca, ale zostawia czytelnika – zwłaszcza rodzica – z pytaniem: gdzie sięga granica wolności, którą matka daje dziecku? „By ocalić siebie, musisz się ze mną rozdzielić, rozłamać, bo porzucając mnie, ocalisz nas obie” – podkreśla Singh, ale na ile radykalne przełomy sama przyjmie? Na to odpowie już córka.

[Nithya Narayanan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Underrated gem. 5 brilliant ⭐️

I don’t entirely remember how I came across this title, but I am so glad that I did! The book is an essay written by Singh, addressed to her daughter that reads more like a memoir with the author’s strong impactful reflections. The author reflects on her upbringing (with a Jewish mother and Punjabi father), her experiences (racial, sexual, communal, political, ecological) and how they are shaped by not only biological, but also environmental factors.

As a mother bringing up her brown child in America, I related and deeply connected with the author’s concerns as a parent and her struggle with helping her mixed race daughter understand the real racial and colonial history of her ancestors and of the land she is being raised in.

I love how the title, ‘The Breaks’ has several different connotations. It depicted breaking away from the norm, the expectations, our inherent misguided notions and perceptions. It also refers to the breaks in the author’s body caused by her childhood traumatic physical injury and the emotional neglect she endured. It also depicts the author’s aspirations for her daughter - hoping that her child breaks with rather than breaks from her, as she navigates life and forges a path for herself. I really appreciated the author’s courage to pore over, and share with us, her actions, mistakes and doubts with the hope of breaking towards a better future. A must read!!!

*My most intimate desire is that you find a way to break with me rather than to break from me. A desire in which the necessity of our breaking does not so much leave me behind in your struggle to survive as it invites me in and calls me to blaze alongside you. I yearn for our imminent break to be not an end, but an act of profound and collective renewal.*

[Julieann Wielga · Rating 5 out of 5]

My sister, my daughter and I attended a small group panel upon which Julietta Singh participated (virtually) at UNBOUND (Columbia, MO 2022). We all loved her. When she answered questions, she was extremely attentive to connect with the speaker and make sure she answered the question being asked.
This essay did not dissapoint. The project has many layers: anticolonial, prophesizing the end times, expansive education, making a queer family in various intentional spaces, retelling of family history- all in the format of a letter to her daughter. In 150 pages, Julietta, using exact word choice , interweaves these themes

[The Atlantic]

"Throughout the book, Julietta Singh fights to teach her daughter about her origins in a queer, mixed-raced family, and to consistently connect their lives to the global realities of climate change, racism, and colonialism. What pulls me to Singh is the way you can almost hear her voice breaking on the page, even as she gathers herself to press on." — Taylor Harris

https://www.theatlantic.com/books/arc...

[Charlott · Rating 4 out of 5]

"If our survival has by now become impossible, I want to join all our expiring selves in fierce poetic refusal, until every last one of our bodies has been destroyed, then recycled, to emerge as other earthly things."

The Breaks is adressed to Julietta Singh's daughter but also to a wide audience - drawing on a lineage of texts in which an older generation adresses the younger one like James Baldwin's The Fire Next Time. Singh thinks about what it means to live and parent in the midst of a climate crisis. She probes the ways capitalism, racism, and patriarchy shape our world and ways to resist this. Singh states: "I try to teach you against my own teaching, to reanimate a world of flourishing animacies I have almost lost."

She weaves together her personal story - from her specific upbringing and complicated family relations, her experiences with illness (though would have loved if she used ableism a bit more as a frame of analysis) to her building a queer family - with broader discussions showing again and again the interconnectedness. Somehow Singh manages to show the dreadful situation we are without writing a hopeless book. This book is not naive or simplistic but instead it's tender and deeply human.

I will keep this book in mind if I ever look for a present for people becoming parents/ caretakers for kids. But even if you do not parent and don't plan to (like I) reading this book is a gift in itself.

[Salomée Lou · Rating 5 out of 5]

MUST READ. One of the most powerful books i have ever read. Beautifully written. Explores themes of colonialism, queerness, gender, parenthood and so much more. This will stay with me for a long time.

[Danny Mclaren · Rating 5 out of 5]

So beautiful. it inspires me towards what a world, a future, a family, a life, and a book can be. thank you for the intimacy and love and difficulty you shared here.