A History of My Brief Body | 
so-so⭐️⭐️⭐️
I had such high hopes for this, but really struggled with it. In part because of the language. (I had to look up several words I didn‘t know in the dictionary, and English is my first language!) I found it hard to focus, it was so dense.
Very damning of Canada in terms of the treatment of indigenous peoples and an interesting perspective on NDN queer life, I‘m glad I read it but wouldn‘t recommend it.
#lgbtbookbingo #lgbt
pickA galvanizing series of essays that blur the line between memoir and think piece. The author is palpably a poet, in that I struggled to adapt to his gorgeously complex phrasing, but found it all the more affecting and informative for not coddling the reader. 1/?
https://youtu.be/cWBiPCuJjXE
#SkodenReadathon
#ernauxvember
Intro
Highlights
A History of My Brief Body by Billy-Ray Belcourt
Caprice by Ronald Firbank
All About H. Hatterr by G.V. Desani
The Strangers by Katherena Vermette
The Uncle's Story by Witi Ihimaera
Happening by Annie Ernaux, Tanya Leslie (Translator)
"From nowhere but the graveyard of history could someone marshal the cruelty of denying someone the solidity of everyday life."
"A long tradition of brutality and negligence is what constitutes kinship for the citizens of a nation sat atop the lands of older, more storied ones. I can't promise I won't become snared in someone's lethal mythology of race. What I can do is love as though it will rupture the singularity of Canadian cruelty."
I switched from my unsatisfying faux-South American novel to Billy-Ray Belcourt‘s memoir, and it‘s the best choice I‘ve made all month. This book is amazing so far.
Also excellent: grilled cheese on cheese bread with a puddle of HP sauce.
Heard good things about this one! Just in from my beloved library.
pickIn emotionally intense vignettes, Belcourt documents his first 25 years as a gay Nêhiyaw individual reaching for the poetIc possibilities in life. These essays focus on his self-reinvention after leaving his northern Alberta reserve to attend university & subsequently earn a PhD in English. Belcourt writes about finding joy, connections & purpose, despite the racism in Canadian society. An erudite #audiobook read by the author. #Indigenous #LGBTQ
The creative drive, the artistic impulse, is above all a thunderous yes to life.
pickBilly-Ray Belcourt is from the Driftpile Cree Nation in Canada, a lauded poet, and an academic. His work is about being indigenous and gay. He uses the term NDN for "Indian" and this beautifully written memoir/meditation describes the challenges of his life and his identity. He brings both the poetic and academic into his analysis of his own life and sexuality. At times, difficult to read but important, intimate portrait. Highly recommended.
pick"Desirous of a beautiful life I get out of bed, but it's Monday and I'm in the throes of a genocide. I make a cup of coffee and pick up a poetry collection, both of which I attend to at my living room window; for a few minutes, I think of nothing besides coffee, poetry, and windows, which feels like a small rebellion... I'm not in the future. I'm in the present; this means I'm as lonely and as brief as a country."
pick5🌟A magnificent memoir of queer sexuality and intimacy, of the impacts of intergenerational traumas towards Indigenous peoples, of grief and survival.This slim book is a powerhouse of intelligent, beautiful brutally honesty writing. A perfect mix of poetry and philosophy. Of Canada's racist history and colonialism, an exploration of queer sexuality, of trauma, grief, love, sex, and so much more. All through the eyes of a true poet!
I‘m not in the right headspace to give this book the attention it needs. In the preface addressed to his Nôhkom, Belcourt writes “It‘s likely that you might feel confused at times by my style of writing, its dexterity, its refusal of easiness,” and that is certainly true for me. I don‘t want to review the book unfairly, simply because his message went over my head. I love his poetry collections and I‘m sure this is just as powerful.?
