Subscribe to Read | $0.00
Join today and start reading your favorite books for Free!
Quick and Easy Sign Up!
It takes less then 1 minute to sign up, then you can enjoy Unlimited eBooks.
Join today and start reading your favorite books for Free!
Quick and Easy Sign Up!
It takes less then 1 minute to sign up, then you can enjoy Unlimited eBooks.
Read Anywhere and on Any Device!
Rate this book!
Write a review?
This book is referentially and structurally dense which isn't typically my preference for poetry, but I think there is good reason for it here -- it was written in 2002 and deals with transsexuality. To me, the complex structures Salah builds with the help of classical references help keep the text from slipping into conventional modes of talking about the trans body. It's pretty incredible that this was written a decade and a half ago, because poems like "Furious: hate's disposition" (about shu...
The density and depth and power of these poems is terrifying and wonderful.
Wow, this was a really incredible read. I'll need some time to think more about this (and probably re-read it) before I have much in the way of coherent thoughts about this, but I definitely recommend this.
Have you ever read something that felt too smart for you? Winnipeg-based writer Trish Salah’s poetry collection Wanting In Arabic was like that for me, especially when I first picked it up. I’ve actually had quite a few unsuccessful starts with this book: I borrowed it from the library twice, and neither time did I manage to finish it before a) someone else requested it, or b) the library wouldn’t let me renew it any more times. There was something about reading this poetry collection that just
Meticulous lyrical poetry, on identity, transformation and orientation. “because I was caught up in my own narrative, careening towards your thighs, your lips and yours, white tusks shininglike knights on white charges off to slay sexism” Salah offers an enriching poetic literature filled with ecstasy about Arab trans and lesbian identities, from the perspective of a “third sex”.
poems that bring out vivid images and emotions although they felt like cobwebs - difficult to hold on to.
her poetry is effortlessly dense and operates often on so many levels that I could only pull the vaguest sense from it. this is a collection that demands more than one reading
It might be impossible to grasp Salah's dexterous linguistic plays, or structurally complex approach to discussing transsexuality, embodiment, and gender identity on just one read. Fortunately, that just means I'll have to acquire a copy and reread at leisure.
Okay so a fair bit of this was honestly totally over my head but most of it I really enjoyed, a certain working in/with/against language that resonated and a vast scope of body words family land and politics.
I am reading a lot of trans poetry lately and it's THE GREATEST.
This was incredible. Absolutely demands re-reading (I got it from the library, but I've put it on a list to buy). I don't think I can even talk coherently about it - the deftness of language is stunning.
3.5-4
June 2 - I'm struggling with this one. At times, achingly beautiful. At others, bordering on incoherent (for me). I keep going.June 3 - Hysteria of Origins is a wonderful section.A book to return to, out of which to slowly draw more meaning.
This rating is much more a reflection of my poor ability to fully appreciate poetry than it is a judgment on the poems themselves.
