#readingaesthetic

just finished all water has perfect memory by nada samih-rotondo!!! love love love!!!

Memory is fickle; it gives all its language to water, which is best understood through the heart. It follows the same route from the womb of the grandmother to that of the mother and passes through to the daughter, on and on for all of time. […] This knowing is deeper than time and transcends space. It embeds itself into blood and tissue and sinew and muscle and pulses anew in every heartbeat. It infuses itself into thoughts, guides footsteps, alters the electromagnetic field of a body. The memory of water is perfect; it so clearly remembers even when our minds no longer know where we come from, who we came through.

Maybe I'm showing my age a little bit here, but as soon as I finished reading this book, my first thought was, "This book is goated." This is a memoir that follows a young Palestinian girl as she immigrates to Rhode Island from Kuwait to escape the political turmoil. Throughout this novel, we touch on topics such as trauma, domestic violence, motherhood, and girlhood/womanhood.

I found myself, whilst reading this book, remembering Robin Wall Kimmerer's memoir, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants, with both having nonlinear ways of telling their story and their experiences with their homeland, it is no surprise to me when I checked Nada's read books and saw she rated Braiding Sweetgrass 5 stars.