Customer Reviews

Drops of This Story

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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.

I enjoyed reading Hammad's book because her voice was so authentic. I think her story would be particularly valuable to immigrants and the children of immigrants because many of the issues she faced are common to people in similar situations. While I've decided to use this book in a college composition class next semester, I did hesitate somewhat because of the very "spoken" (read "ungrammatical") language of the text, but I think her messages outweigh any language concerns. I also strongly believe that the Palestinians' story is one that needs to be shared, and Hammad does a nice job of introducing it in a personal way. A couple of things I did find annoying, though, were the unending references to those "drops" and also a couple typos within the text that should have been caught by an editor before going to print. All in all, though, it's a quick and enjoyable read that encourages thought.

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!!

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

I was assigned this book in a U.S. Literature tfrom 1929 course. I loved it. I found Hammad's constant use of the words "drops of this story" intriguing. It seemed to me that it was representative of the piece itself. She was giving the reader little drops of her own personal story, so when she shifted to another part of her story she let the reader know.She is a passionate and gifted writer. Her insight and honesty make "Drops of this Story" a compelling piece to read. Please write more Hammad.