Drops of This Story [Hardcover]

Suheir Hammad (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1996

As a young Palestinian woman raised in Brooklyn, during the rise of crack and Hip Hop, Suheir developed her own ideas of what words such as "race" and "culture" meant to her. Drops of This Story is her young soul in words. Readers will feel the growing paints of the young woman of color as she tries to write herself into existence.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 93 pages
• Publisher: Writers & Readers; 2nd edition (October 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0863162436
• ISBN-13: 978-0863162435
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 6.2 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #184,288 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Drops Satisfies My Thirst, February 25, 2008

By 

Andrew Mccarthy "Alter Arts" (New York, NY) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Drops of This Story (Hardcover)

Despite what another reviewer who misspells the title of this book has to say, this artistic endeavor known as Drops Of This Story by the worldly yet humble Suheir Hammad is enriching, to say the least, and sells on this site for $300 for good reason. Reading Drops allows many of us to enter the world of a young woman coming of age where identity is both cherished and exploited, and Ms. Hammad illustrates with brief but inter-connected passages the many intersections of culture and womanhood.

The writing is fresh, intelligent, and poetic in ways that mirror her other two books (of poetry), Born Palestinian, Born Black and ZataarDiva, the latter of which is her most recent and most masterful, capturing the poet's talents in mature form. Ms. Hammad's interpretive use of vignettes to form the many scenes within this memoir breaks from the traditional beginning-middle-ending narrative that is often presented as the only way to tell a story. This is a good match for the progressive politics and evolving sense of humanity weaved through the pages of this book.

6 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful story @ a Palestinian woman in search of herself!, May 8, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Drops of This Story (Hardcover)

Drops of this Story is a deeply moving and emotionally written book about what it is like to be Palestinian, a woman of color. In her search for identity, Suheir writes of her madness and fears, strengths and beauty, pride, culture,and longing. Her beautiful spirit sings with each word that she writes. A True Writer!!

16 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Palestinian Homegirl "Drops" the Ball, October 30, 2000

By 

NappyGirl (United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Drops of This Story (Hardcover)

Suheir Hammad shows a lot of promise as a poet. Her collection of poetry titled BORN PALESTINIAN BORN BLACK is both a refreshing and intelligent voice from a seldom heard Palestinian American minority. Unfortunately, as a memoirist, she still has a long way to go to develop an ear for good and engaging prose. DROPS IN THIS STORY is not only a painfully thin volume but it also lacks cohesion and depth. Suheir's publisher would have done her a favor by handing her back this manuscript and telling her to come back in ten years when she had something better to say.

Hammad routinely ripples the water on the surface many subjects that beg for deeper analysis. From sexism and bigotry to her parent's ill fated attempt at finding her a suitor. From her father's alcoholism to cutting her long virginal hair to simply being-an-American-while-looking-like-a-Puerto-Rican-and-not speaking-a-lick-of-Arabic. Instead of delving into these funny and painful experiences in her coming of age story , Hammad sticks them to the pages of her memoir like post-it notes, reminding the reader of events that don't connect.

What the reader is left with is scattered pages from some one else's diary that never quite bridges the gap into becoming a real memoir.

Hammad routinely talks about her DROPS--this constant "wetness" that begs her to write, demands that she write...but the story as it was published isn't memorable. One reflection in DROPS recants the story of a waiter asking Suhier what she does:

"I'm a writer," she says

"What do you write about?" he asks.

"Myself," she answers to which he retorts,

"How boring."

'Tis