Teaching My Mother How to Give Birth, Warsan Shire
Teaching My Mother How to Give Birth, Warsan Shire
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Teaching My Mother How to Give Birth

Author: Warsan Shire

Narrator: Warsan Shire

Unabridged: 30 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 04/18/2017


Synopsis

What elevates teaching my mother how to give birth, what gives the poems their disturbing brilliance, is Warsan Shire's ability to give simple, beautiful eloquence to the veiled world where sensuality lives in the dominant narrative of Islam; reclaiming the more nuanced truths of earlier times - as in Tayeb Salih's work - and translating to the realm of lyric the work of the likes of Nawal El Saadawi. As Rumi said, "Love will find its way through all languages on its own"; in teaching my mother how to give birth, Warsan's début pamphlet, we witness the unearthing of a poet who finds her way through all preconceptions to strike the heart directly.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Sean Barrs on May 10, 2017

Through Teaching My Mother How to Give Birth the empowerment of women becomes like a burning tempest kindled up by the rawness of Warsan Shire’s words. The poems are also about reality, the horrors that some people have to face in a word driven by war. They carry with them such human depth, none mor......more

Goodreads review by Bri on December 13, 2012

I should mark this as read. However, I carry the book in my purse and have read it everyday since it arrived in the mail. I loved it the moment I opened the first page. The intro hit me like a ton of bricks "I have my mother's mouth and my father's eyes..." that line hit me like a ton of bricks. I l......more

Goodreads review by Cindy on April 25, 2019

Warsan Shire writes beautifully - it's very easy to lean into overloading readers with metaphors and flowery language as a crutch, which often suggests amateurish writing; but Warsan expertly handles it with sophistication and purpose. She makes the narratives feel intimate and explores themes like......more

Goodreads review by Anne on March 27, 2016

Today is a good day. Today is a wonderful day - any day that starts out like this is. I found a house full of words. Bold, fearless, silky, abrasive, wounding words. Warsan Shire is a house full of words. Words that don't cuddle you, words that envelope you. There's a deep sense of melancholy to her......more