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How to Say Babylon
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Apr/May '24 GR: How to Say Babylon
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message 51:
by
Angel
(new)
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rated it 5 stars
Jun 19, 2024 12:31PM
I am up to the part where Safiya is at St James school and Miss Pinnock is chastising her for walking the school grounds alone and not brushing her hair and having henna on her hands. Safiya is becoming more isolated at school. Shannon, the privileged white girl seems to be offering an olive branch telling Safiya that she thinks henna is cool. But she then interrogates Safiya about Rasta. I can’t help but feel her discomfort at the scrutiny she is undergoing.
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I am at the part where she just started her first day at St James school. I am still worried for her. She does not assimilate and that can be extremely dangerous in this school setting.
Welp, she has been hanging out with the old poet. She had her poem, Daddy, printed in the newspaper and her pops didn’t take it well. I was glad to know she found a way to lash out at him. He is mean, greedy and selfish. In my opinion, her moms should have taken her children with her and left this dude instead of leaving her kids with him. Can you imagine what would have happened to them if the mother didn’t come back inside the gate?
I finished it! I was biting my nails and was extremely worried for her and her mom. Naturally I worried about the sisters and brother too but OMG!
Im STILL reading it. I am up to the chapter titled The Red Belt. I can feel the growing tension, and I am worried for Safiya and her mother and siblings.
Angel, I was biting my nails! I had to remind myself that she is narrating, therefore, she lives, lol
I finally finished this book! I give it 5 stars!
I gave it five stars too. I am so very surprised at my ignorance of the Rasta culture. There was a popular commercialized version that was very shown to us in the northeast. It was not positive but I had no idea how intense it could get.
I had no idea the women were treated like that. I loved her writing. And I was so grateful that her mother and siblings got out of there. Her dad did seem to have some redemption at the end. (Yes, I am thinking of the Bob Marley song as I write that!)
I loved the audio book. Her voice is truly poetic. I am glad she survived, for a little while I thought her dad was going to kill her.
Dosha (Bluestocking7) wrote: "I loved the audio book. Her voice is truly poetic. I am glad she survived, for a little while I thought her dad was going to kill her."Me too!
Mod
I borrowed this book from my library and it finally became available August 31st. I started listening and it's much better for me to listen than read this particular book. The author writes poetically and for me it's hard to read a book that's written that way.
Her voice is well suited for audio so I'm loving hearing about her experience. I'm about 3 hours in and it's already a doozy of a life.
It was easy listening in the beginning. Then, once we were not in the beginning anymore, I had to listen to it in small sips. It gets heavy.
I’m going to be sending my hardcover to my sister in law. She lives in Oregon and she loves poetic memoirs.
Angel did you read it?
Mod
@Dosha, I did read it. I left a review. I gave it 5 stars.
@shaylah, I also learned so much about Rastafarian culture. I didn’t realize that it was so strict with women.
I also had no idea how ignorant I was about this culture. I can believe that all families are different, but there were some extremely difficult times in this household.
Mod
I just got to the part where Safiya’s teeth were broken when her brother pushed her. That part was so sad and she lost her friends because children can be mean sometimes.
I’m not one for memoirs but for me this one is the best one I’ve read so far.
@Shaylah, I like listening to them vs reading them. I think the energy is different.
This audio memoir and the one by Viola Davis are both amazing. Viola Davis’s audio memoir is haunting. It is still with me and this one will stick with me also. These two women have voices that sneak into your heart. Talk about survivors! Sinclair is a poet, through and through. The way she describes certain disasters is just beautiful. It takes the sting out of them and leaves a certain calmness in their wake.
Shaylah wrote: “Yea the dad was strict but when he returned from jail he was on another level.”It felt to me like she really tied it to the time he was betrayed by his bandmate, in Japan. He seemed so bitter upon his return, and any flexibility or tolerance that he had before that seemed to have just gone away.
Trudy wrote: "This was one of the best books I’ve ever read! I would give it more than five stars if I could! Safiya Sinclair’s words are purely magical and her sentences absolutely sing!
I am in complete awe ..."
Yes Yes Yes. Loved every bit of it. Read it while listening to Safiya Sinclair narrate on Audible. Just amazing all around.
