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A review by babygirl
I'm Telling the Truth, but I'm Lying: Essays by Bassey Ikpi
4.0
Excellent. A series of essays that does excellent work considering perspective (I, she, you), and the distance it affords and creates. One chapter is formatted using time stamps, going from and to a flight. It does great in communicating how fast and overwhelming a minute can be, and how time can go by so quickly, without sleeping, no real food, no pause, no rest, no joy. It shows how abuse can take different shapes, can smile, be taught. Talks about the medical trauma of doctors and nurses constantly discussing a patient while the patient is in the room in third person, or as a non-entity. Discusses (self-) harm and how sometimes it works as protection, as proof. One of the few times I've seen lifelong restrictive eating patterns discussed. Strong sense of imagery, good pace. Really excellent book.
At times repetitive in language -- this is done purposefully, with whole sentences copied throughout a chapter at times to really stamp across a message. However, I think readers can be trusted a bit more. Also, there was a lot of presumption about other people's inner thoughts from the narrator that was really annoying at times -- I suppose it's what people do in real life and can be part of how this person thinks, constantly (self-assuredly) 'knowing' what other people's lives are like, but as a reader it was bothersome, also repetitive, and pointless at times, in my opinion. I don't see how those moments moved the story forwards, and can easily be completely wrong, although they also might serve as illustrating the narrator's biased perspective.
At times repetitive in language -- this is done purposefully, with whole sentences copied throughout a chapter at times to really stamp across a message. However, I think readers can be trusted a bit more. Also, there was a lot of presumption about other people's inner thoughts from the narrator that was really annoying at times -- I suppose it's what people do in real life and can be part of how this person thinks, constantly (self-assuredly) 'knowing' what other people's lives are like, but as a reader it was bothersome, also repetitive, and pointless at times, in my opinion. I don't see how those moments moved the story forwards, and can easily be completely wrong, although they also might serve as illustrating the narrator's biased perspective.