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Antiemetic for Homesickness
Antiemetic for Homesickness
Romalyn Ante | 2020 | Fiction & Poetry
10
10.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
I don’t often review poetry, because I just don’t have the experience to do so effectively, I think. But I do like to read poetry, and listen to it being read. This book of poems centres around the poets lived experience - leaving the Philippines as an older teenager and coming to live in the UK with her mother, a nurse in the NHS, and the rest of her family. As it says in the title of the book, there is a real feeling of homesickness and guilt of having left family behind. The wish to hold on to her heritage comes across strongly as well. At the same time, Ante’s life and work as a nurse in the NHS is in many of these poems - the hard work, the racism she encounters and the care she takes of her patients.

I really enjoyed the glimpses into life in the Philippines, and I made good use of the ‘Boodle Fight of Words and Terminologies’, the notes and Google translate (it’s the linguist in me 🤷🏼‍♀️) It sounds like hard work, doesn’t it - but it wasn’t. This will be a book that goes on my poetry shelf (yes, I have one!) that I will revisit often, I think.

Thank you to Vintage Books for sending me this book - it’s always worth entering the competition because sometimes I do win!!
  
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ClareR (5726 KP) rated Badminton in Books

Dec 31, 2017 (Updated Dec 31, 2017)  
B
Badminton
Molly Naylor | 2016 | Fiction & Poetry
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Poetry about life
Molly Naylor writes poetry about her life. Some of it is really funny, some very insightful. She calls it "a manifesto of my life" and a confession of sorts.
I saw Molly perform many of her poems in this collection on a "Poetry Pub Crawl" (I feel that this may be a very British phenomenon, and if you're British and have never experienced one, then go out and find one! They're great fun!) at the Chester Literature Festival. She really was great and the reason I bought her book was exactly her ability to get her message across through her poetry. Being a grown up isn't easy!