Reading Like a Girl

by Rishma Dunlop

In" Reading Like a Girl, "Rishma Dunlop explores themes of immigration, Punjabi Sikh heritage, suburban life in the late 1950s and 1960s, diasporicand hybrid identity, the construction of a life through reading literature, comic book heroes and postcolonial education. The poet creates a lush landscapeof contrasts and paradoxes, scenes that include women in saris inNiagara Falls, Punjabi lullabies and the music of teen suburbia in the 1960s-Led Zeppelin and Eric Clapton. Through the poems in this volume, theauthor explores the loss of "desh" or homeland for immigrants whose land ofbirth becomes a foreign geography, despite its stronghold on memory andembodied longing. The possibilities of new identities are presented throughremembrance and re-imagining of the author's journey through readingbooks from girlhood to her present roles as university professor and as awoman writer.

Genres: Poetry, Coming Of Age

112 pages, Paperback

First published September 4, 2004

Reviews

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked the theme of a girl reading - that flowed through these poems. I liked the series of poems specifically titled "reading like a girl"

[l · Rating 3 out of 5]

love the 'reading like a girl' sequence, 'my mother's lost places' & 'soja'

I find the rest a bit sentimental for my taste tbh