colonial voice: Ake

Ake is not one of the books you just jump into, jumping around, swimming freely in the narrative. It’s more like a mud-think river with hippopotomouses and catfish swimming in the muck. Slow. Thick. Taking it’s time. The voice reminds me of Naipul-   it’s very much one of those male, brown, Post British Colonial I [...]

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The Soldier in the Poet

For me reading Soldier was about experiencing the actual life of such a prolific writer. Since Jordan’s death much has been said about her life, personality, and writing. I think people often forget that June Jordan isn’t just another african american writer but that she is a child of immigrant parents. When considering the pool [...]

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For your enjoyment…

Here’s a review of Eat Pray Love that I found to be pretty right-on. Articulates a lot of the things we all talked about, and also gets to why I too found this “a book I loved and hated at once.”
http://www.notitles.com/?page_id=29

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Present perfect

Tara Bahrampour writes her memoir in present tense, a technique employed by Elizabeth Gilbert in “Eat, Pray, Love” and who knows how many other brilliant wizards of non-fiction craft. I think I want to write my final paper on this approach and its myriad benefits for both writer and reader. I only wish I’d been [...]

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Bahrampour’s Inner Child

Other than the use of fluid, straightforward diction, succinct, yet lush structure, and beautiful familiarity with storytelling, I found Bahrampour’s comprehension and way of portraying childhood through prose to be absolutely brilliant.  Sometimes I forgot that I was reading the words of an adult writing from the POV of a little girl.  The language was [...]

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simplicity

To See and See Again.
Where does a story start? Where does it end? How do you tell a story?
What I really like about this particular memoir is that Bahrampour revisits the same moment with different perspectives. For example, the author first describes her childhood recollections of revolution (and what a revolution it is too!) and [...]

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Juxtapositions

Juxtapositions
 
To See and See Again is a journey towards discovering all of her true self. From the beginning, I fell in love with her honesty, insight of her cultural duality and her child-like perspective. This memoir was relatable to me because I am biracial, although only grew up in California, I understand the complexity of [...]

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The personal is universal – To See and See Again

In one of the last scenes of the book, Bahrampour is sitting with Carla and her mother, remnants from her distant past and culture-straddlers like herself, trying to think of some connective bridge that she can articulate. She wonders if she should say something specific, like “How happy I am to discover that they are [...]

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The Language of Memoir

Well, Ake was going to be my one late entry, but then it became so late I realized that I might as well double-up and post once for both books. (I went to St. Louis last week, and very quickly learned that Ake is not a “plane read.” Especially while nauseous. I did get through [...]

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To Blog and Blog Again

 
The title of this book is perfect in its simplicity, while complex in its referral to our sense of memory and place.  Tara Bahrampour takes us along as she searches for meaning and identity in an every changing landscape.  The more we read, the more we clearly see how our attachment to where we come [...]

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