Literary reviews by Tim Love.
Warning: Rather than reviews, these are often notes in preparation for reviews that were never finished, or pleas for help with understanding pieces. See Litref Reviews - a rationale for details.

Saturday, 8 January 2022

"home body" by Rupi Kaur (Simon and Schuster, 2020)

So much white space! So little originality.

  • why do i let my mind/ get under my skin/ i am so sensitive - this is ok but doesn't merit a whole page
  • you are lonely/ but you are not alone - there is a difference - a cliché yet they're the only words on the page
  • anxiety feels like i'm hanging/ off the side of a building/ and my hand is going to/ slip any second - a page!
  • our pain is the doorway to our joy - a page!
  • i have a fear of seeming too desperate
  • masturbation/ is meditation - a page
  • in a world that doesn't consider/ my body to be mine/ self-pleasure is an act/ of self-preservation/ when i'm feeling disconnected/ i connect with my centre/ touch by touch/ i drop back into myself at the orgasm - shame that this idea has been expressed so many times before
  • happiness grew old/ waiting for me - that's ok
  • yours is the only opinion of you/ that matters - Yes! Really! That's what it says.
  • get out of your own way - that's ok
  • reject their bullshit definition/ of what a woman should look like
  • give me laugh lines and wrinkles/ i want proof of the jokes we shared/ engrave the lines into my face like/ the roots of a tree that grows deeper ... I want to leave this place knowing/ I did something with my body/ other than trying to/ make it look perfect - extracts from the best of the pieces.

Written for mid-teens who don't read much? Or is the persona a sort of Adrian Mole character?

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