OVERVIEWOH. MY. GOD!!! This book ARC was AMAZING!!
There is so much to unpack that I wish that I could just think about it for weeks. But life doesn't, unfortunately, work that way so I will press on!
This was the memoir of Safiya Sinclair who is the eldest daughter of a Rastafarian family. There are so many intense, deep, and painful layers in this book. There is white colonialism, Caribbean and Jamaican dependence on tourism, lack of upward mobility, patriarchy, and Rastafarianism. But the biggest and most convicting important part to unpack is that the author is a Black female.
Many readers, bloggers, and reviewers are going to compare this book to Educated by Tara Westover. Yes, both were poor women trapped in a patriarchal religious family. But, Tara Westover is white and Safiya Sinclair is Black. That is an enormous difference between the two authors. Being born Black made every aspect of her life so much more difficult for Safiya and then add in all of the other issues it is beyond incredible that she and her family have accomplished so very much.
The saddest and most depressing part for me is that if Safiya was born in the United States, she would have STILL faced the same obstacles. Plus, Safiya may have had a worse life as the United States is not a leader in its treatment of BIPOC folks and women.
This breaks my heart and scares me for the future of Black women and our country. As a personal aside, my bi-racial daughter's best friend (and my "niece") is Black so this book touches me deeply and personally.
Please note that I will be careful as I don't want to give any spoilers! So some of this review will be a bit vague on purpose.
YES, this memoir is in the running for my book of the year for 2023.
REVIEW: 5.0 stars
Writing: 5.0 stars
How to Say Babylon was such a well-written memoir. It was painful and difficult to read at times because of the many incidents in the book that triggered me about my family of origin. No, I do NOT compare my life to Safiya's at all, but some of the horrific scenes made me flashback to my younger life. That to me, is the sign of a very good writer who reaches into your heart and soul and pulls HARD!
Safiya is a poet which I did not realize until about halfway through the book. However, while reading this book, her beautiful, descriptive, and lush writing reminded me of poetic writing. Then she adds in the Jamaican patois and her 3rd person accounts and the writing is masterful and perfect.
Beautifully written!
Character development: 5.0 stars
The main characters were Safiya, her parents, and her three siblings. These six individuals were thoroughly developed with intense backstories for all of them. The memoir begins when her parents meet and ends with her poetry reading in Jamaica which was a significant amount of time. The amazing part is that Safiya was able to continue the detail of the characters throughout this long period of time.
There were many secondary or supporting characters including Jamaica and a whole host of friends, family, and acquaintances. All of these characters were important to keep the story moving forward and none were throwaway characters. Of course, Jamaica was an integral secondary character in the storyline.
Character development is the whole deal for me with ANY good book and the character development is STRONG in this memoir.
Storyline: 5.0 stars
As this was a memoir, the storyline was based on people's lives which is an important detail to be aware of. The life that these characters lived are not just fictional characters but real-life people. It was painful to realize the difficulties that all of them went through physically, mentally, and emotionally were based on true stories. Horrific!
The core of the memoir is the life of a Black woman born in Jamaica to a poor Rastafarian family controlled by her patriarchal father. What a soup of hardship for the author to overcome, but she did it!
Book cover: 4.5 stars
The cover needed a bit of red in it to have all of the Rastafarian colors. But very good!
Book title: 5.0 stars
Excellent! It becomes clear as you read the memoir!!
Gut feeling: 4.0 stars
I wasn't sure about this book, but I so wanted to learn more about Jamaica and Rastafarianism. I was wrong about it as I loved this memoir!
Suggestions:
I would have liked a glossary for Jamaican patois and a map of Jamaica.
Highly RECOMMEND
INFORMATION/LINKS
How to Say Babylon by Safiya Sinclair
352 pages
6 days to read it (I stayed up until 2:00 am to finish it this morning)
Read it as an ARC ebook
Release date of 10/02/2023
https://www.safiyasinclair.com/
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5699353464
https://www.simonandschuster.com/search/books/Imprint-37-Ink/_/N-1z0yfqy/Ne-ph4
https://www.netgalley.com/
Happy reading,
Dorothea 💜
