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kittoji's review against another edition
2.5
i really enjoy powles' symbolism and her exploration of diasporic malaysian-chinese heritage, how it ties in with food and language.
however, i much prefer her prose and i did not vibe with most of the poetry. i thought the more prose-leaning pieces were her best here.
starrybooker's review against another edition
4.0
A beautiful poetry collection about disconnection and home and family and food, I love the way that Nina Mingya Powles uses language and translation to craft these gorgeous descriptions that she anchors to memory and place.
gremlinpride's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
slow-paced
5.0
ameliasbooks's review against another edition
I very often struggle with prose poetry.
taromilkpng's review against another edition
2.0
extremely mid,,, despite some moments of self-reflexivity, this book is q orientalizing in its treatment of asia as the wasian diasporic subject's dreamspace & thus projection screen. worse, this book is profoundly, &, with a shocking abundance that i have yet to behold in another book, guilty of what som-mai nguyen has called a "jazz-hands half-nelson device" in diasporic lit in which writers "extrapolate from orthographic coincidence and sprinkle in non-English words to assert unearned authority." the number of times i had to shout "that is NOT true!!!!" @ "explanations" of chinese etymology/definitions while reading this lol
https://astra-mag.com/articles/blunt-force-ethnic-credibility/
read this article instead of this book ... i'm sry...
https://astra-mag.com/articles/blunt-force-ethnic-credibility/
read this article instead of this book ... i'm sry...