Shoneyin tackles universal themes by exploring the interior lives of four Nigerian women through the secrets they keep in a conservative, polygamist family.
Tag: Rape
Remembering and Rereading Kate Chopin’s The Awakening
The Awakening by Kate Chopin came to me the summer I most desperately needed to find a woman who understood. I was in the midst of a crisis: The crisis of being a woman. I was finding out its darkest meaning in the most horrific ways. Finding one person, however fictional, validated the tragedies I lived and the ones I had yet to experience.
A Flawed Diamond: The Learning Curve by Mandy Berman
On a technical level, I love this novel, but for some reason, it fell short. Berman tackles complicated and important issues women face every day with grace and insight.
Four Years Later; Unpublished, Open Letter to My Dad
I walk through this world as a woman. In 2016, as a woman, a survivor of rape and domestic violence, I was devastated. I love my father more than anything, but he failed me when he voted for Trump. On inauguration day in 2017, I wrote a letter to my dad I never sent. Today, we welcomed hope into the Oval Office in a historic moment, but this letter has lived in my heart for four years. Even though we voted hate out, we have much work to do. Four years later, this letter still holds true for every one of the 74 million men and women who voted for Trump in 2020.
I Am A Servivor
I hate the word survivor. It feels like a lie. My past of sexual violence and domestic abuse have not been a secret here, at ...on the B.L., but it's not been something I have highlighted either. No more. I use my past to serve, to create change. I am a servivor.
Putney
Sofka Zinovieff's Putney is a complex look into the psyches of the abuser, the abused, and the observer. This is not a normal review because of my past with sexual assault, I decided to add a biased and personal review of this novel.