Hafsa Muhammad > Recent Status Updates

"Now all I read is poetry. Poetry is the one thing that isn't contaminated, the one thing that isn't part of the game. I don't know if you follow me, Professor. Only poetry - and let me be clear, only some of it - is good for you, only poetry isn't shit." A Caulfield like character celebrating NPM '14?

I'm beginning to believe that by the time you're all prepared to be listening to what this book is saying, really 'listen,' it doesn't say anything; there's absolutely no beautiful enigma awaiting to be 'listened' to, and I have already lost my patience with the contrived fable-ism, which is cliched to say the least.

"And better still to be alone with one’s books. They tell their incredible stories at the time when you want to hear them. But when you’re talking to people, they say some things that are so strange that you don’t know how to continue the conversation." And so we keep reading, not having to talk, but listen. This book is seeming to be one of those types you listen to, wanting to talk even, but not needing to.

The book is finally growing on me, and I understand the hype now. It's not just a tragic and poignant story that shakes up your insides, although it very dramatically is; it's not just a political, historical narrative, even if I know a lot more of the world and Africa than I ever did; it is a beautiful woven, complex narrative, even ironic at times by its very narrative order!