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441 reviews for:
This Will Be My Undoing: Living at the Intersection of Black, Female, and Feminist in (White) America
Morgan Jerkins
4.03 AVERAGE
441 reviews for:
This Will Be My Undoing: Living at the Intersection of Black, Female, and Feminist in (White) America
Morgan Jerkins
4.03 AVERAGE
This is honestly the best book I've read so far in 2018 and for quite awhile. Personal yet broad, Jerkins covers subtle (to me as a white woman) aspects or things I wouldn't have considered before about what it means to be a Black woman. So good. I was enthralled.
Morgan’s story and experiences were thought-provoking. She made me reflect on my privilege, experiences, and choices.
This was excellent.
I will admit, it started out a bit slow for me. I loved the intro and how the author set up her framework for the novel, but I found the first couple of essays dragged for me. I was in my head a bit about what was new, what was different, what was this author bringing to the conversation and then bam it all hit.
there are a few passages I tagged to remember, and then promptly forgot given my short-term memory can be atrocious and my library book was due back, but what stuck with me was the author's discussion of how white people (me) view the world -- what lens we use -- and the impact that has on the Black community, specifically, and the needs for Black community spaces. Her discussion of context and perception really elevated and filled in a lot of my own thoughts and she wrote with clarity and incisiveness which made me excited to continue to read all her work.
I would sum up this book with one word: brave. How she wrote about her sexual experiences really comes to mind with that -- and especially what they encompass: racial, mental health and gender barriers among other things.
Recommend this and also a strong twitter follow recommendation ;)
I will admit, it started out a bit slow for me. I loved the intro and how the author set up her framework for the novel, but I found the first couple of essays dragged for me. I was in my head a bit about what was new, what was different, what was this author bringing to the conversation and then bam it all hit.
there are a few passages I tagged to remember, and then promptly forgot given my short-term memory can be atrocious and my library book was due back, but what stuck with me was the author's discussion of how white people (me) view the world -- what lens we use -- and the impact that has on the Black community, specifically, and the needs for Black community spaces. Her discussion of context and perception really elevated and filled in a lot of my own thoughts and she wrote with clarity and incisiveness which made me excited to continue to read all her work.
I would sum up this book with one word: brave. How she wrote about her sexual experiences really comes to mind with that -- and especially what they encompass: racial, mental health and gender barriers among other things.
Recommend this and also a strong twitter follow recommendation ;)
I appreciated hearing Jerkins' perspective on living in the U.S. as a Black woman & feminist. I'm still sitting with and thinking about this book and likely will for quite some time.
An important, well-researched view from a highly intelligent author who grapples with a double disadvantage of being black and female in the United States, and even contrasts domestic experiences with her visits to Japan and Russia. Some black female readers on Goodreads criticize certain generalizations made in This Will Be My Undoing. It would be presumptuous of me to judge the book from that angle, but I concur that some of its conclusions seemed more youthful and less thought-out than most. That's typical of any non-fiction work: after all, in such work, the author's position takes the central place; it's impossible to embrace all points of view. Much recommended, especially to those who belong to different social and racial backgrounds. I look forward to Jerkins's future work.
I had the pleasure of finally reading This Will Be My Undoing for Women’s History Month, and it was excellent. Jerkins’s writing style is beautiful, and she’s able to pack emotional resonance into each of the essays collected in this volume. I try to not review personal essays as critically as I do fiction, but I’ll say that Jerkins will have you hooked with each and every one of these essays - some of my favorites were ‘Monkeys Like You’, ‘Human, Not Black’, and ‘Who Will Write Us’. I would also like to stress the point that Jerkins mentions in ‘Monkeys Like You’ - that this is a book not “about all women, but it is meant for all women, and men, and those who do not adhere to the gender binary.” We can all learn something from those like Jerkins who are finally able to tell their personal stories after many years of being silenced. I’m excited to read her next book that’s coming out later this spring. Also, this book was picked up in an effort to fit more nonfiction into my reading this year, and essays are a fairly new to me form of the genre - so if you have any suggestions, let me know!
This important book made me realize how much I tend to pick up books by funny black women, and perhaps my understanding has been skewed a little. Not that I like any of those funny books any less--I don't!--but this more serious and introspective take has caused a lot of introspection here. Without the humor to cushion the truth, the truth was a little more uncomfortable for me--but probably all the more needed. I will be affected by this and thinking about this book for a long time. This was serious and emotional and necessary.
DNF at 62%. I am all for women being open about their sexuality, but this went into so much unnecessary detail about it that it was making me cringe. It's a decent enough insight into the life of one black woman, but the details added in only make me uncomfortable rather than educate.
An insightful and eye-opening read. Would have loved to read this book as part of a class.
I normally rate 5 star for books that I would universally recommend...this one is probably a 4.7 because there are a lot of people who wouldn't be open to it.
I really enjoyed reading the essays while at the same time struggled with the brutal honesty in them. This book is a good one if you are white and you want to be uncomfortable with your whiteness because the author lays out all kinds of difficult truths. I also found it very thought provoking when she talked about how she didn't want sympathy from non-black people. Figure out how to make things better or get out of the way.
I am so thankful that I finished this before my library ended the ebook loan.
I really enjoyed reading the essays while at the same time struggled with the brutal honesty in them. This book is a good one if you are white and you want to be uncomfortable with your whiteness because the author lays out all kinds of difficult truths. I also found it very thought provoking when she talked about how she didn't want sympathy from non-black people. Figure out how to make things better or get out of the way.
Spoiler
Oh, and the part about how she has felt ashamed of her light skin because it's likely light due to a slave owner raping a female in her family line...broke my heart.I am so thankful that I finished this before my library ended the ebook loan.