Elizabeth Sherman

SWEPT AWAY BY 'HOW TO SAY BABYLON'. How to convey the powerful sweep of this beautiful book without spoilers? First, let me warn you: set aside a good chunk of time; once immersed in the Jamaican "Rasta girl's" remarkable young life, you will not be able to stop. A tale of becoming, it bristles with extremes of love and hurt, zealotry, striving, despair, metaphor, a woman's place in a man's world, and Safiya's particular grace: words. No small incident is without meaning. Follow her on her journey and you will come to understand why Safiya wrote what she did on her T-shirt, when and why she cut her hair, and how hot fires meant to burn people into ash sometimes, only sometimes, end up forging steel. Final note: If you loved Tara Westover's EDUCATED, you will love this book. I also highly recommend the audiobook for the unique pleasure of hearing Safiya Sinclair tell her very Jamaican yet universal story as only she can.

ANNA BURN'S "MILKMAN" TOO GOOD TO MISS! I am so blown away by this masterpiece that I have to write a review. With each sentence of The Milkman, Anna Burn delivers a cornucopia of wit, pleasure, and information. The richness of it all, and the allure of a small and highly idiosyncratic corner of the world (in this case, Northern Ireland during "the Troubles") recall the experience of reading Thomas Wolfe's Look Homeward Angel. But Ana Burns is totally sleek and modern in her writing, building her world with layering and repetition rather than baroque gobs of ornamental adjectives. Her brilliant use of epithets rather than names also allows Middle Sister to show us her world, and her place in it, swiftly and without cumbersome explanations or comment. No "yes, but" in this review! Only admiration for Middle Sister's fine appreciation of Maybe Boyfriend's delicacy and visceral reactions to soul-destroying stalking first by McSomebody, then by the villainous Reformer Milkman, and last but not least, by the pious women's gossip--including her own Ma. Even the cameos are terrific -- the Wee Sisters, the Ladies with Issues, the brave Real Milkman, Poisoner Girl, the 10-minute area -- and the many others who make one corner of Northern Ireland in those dark days, and one brilliantly awakening young woman, come alive in these pages. (I have to add that I heard this book in an audiobook edition, brilliantly read--in a delightful Irish accent--by actress Brid Brennan.) Elizabeth J. Sherman, PhD Washington, DC