Reviews

At the prospect of reading this book, I felt unsure if I would like it. I wasn’t looking forward to it and I was determined not to enjoy it. I think that was because I was apart of June Jordan’s Poetry for the People class, and I thought it was quite boring. It didn’t inspire any great love or feeling in me. To challenge that I told myself to read the first page; and I did. To my surprise, I thought it was interest enough to keep me engaged. I wanted to read more. Now, it wasn’t at all what expected for a memoir. There was no particular story plot to follow, but a collection o small feelings and memories, much like a true memory of childhood. I can’t justify giving it 3 stars because “nothing interesting happened.” We have no control over our experiences as children. It’s a bit gross thinking that we needed exaggerated trauma on children in order for the book to be compelling or highly entertaining. I gave it 3 stars because I thought it was interesting enough for me to want to keep reading but not enough to be moved by it. I am a little disgruntled at the ending. There was no clear/ definitive ending; which makes sense considering this a memoir of a childhood- and June obviously live longer than the ending, but it felt abrupt and not memorable to me.

andreagtrrz's review

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4.0

So simple in its language, June paints an intricate portrait of her childhood as the only daughter of a West Indian father who treated her like a son. A great sketch of life in '40s and '50s New York.

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