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Reviews tagging 'Racial slurs'

Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning by Cathy Park Hong

42 reviews

deetabz's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

3.75

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questingnotcoasting's review against another edition

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dark emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

3.5

This book was definitely too clever for me but I feel like I still got a lot out of it. It's a collection of essays which I found really interesting but I also got a bit lost sometimes. Cathy Park Hong is a poet and some of her writing was a bit dense for me and some of the concepts went over my head. However I'm glad I read it and I don't think I've read another book like it. 
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emordnilap's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful informative medium-paced

5.0

read for my us multiethnic lit class
incredibly powerful read
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noellelovesbooks's review against another edition

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challenging dark informative medium-paced

4.0

This book gave me so much to think about. How little I know of history and the challenges that my ancestors have faced and continue to face. 
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laurendenton's review against another edition

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challenging emotional informative reflective medium-paced

3.75

I think that this is a difficult book for me to rate because of the fact that it is split into 7 different essays, some of which work in relation to others and some which stand completely alone. The first three essays, which spoke directly in regards to the title Minor Feelings, were extremely eye-opening and affirming to my past experiences with racism and sexism. I was able to, while reading those initial sections, come to the conclusion that the majority of my own racial experiences have been "minor feelings", meaning that they have been subtle and distorted by my own self-hating memory. I have not been pulled over or directly called the n-word, but I have had more indirect experiences that have made me, in retrospect, wonder if maybe I was overreacting the entire time. Similarly, my voicing of such events has been met with sharp dismissals that only further my personal disbelief. The following three essays for me were, to put it bluntly, unremarkable. As stand-alones, perhaps in a separate collection of essays or as their own works entirely, I would've found them to be exceptionally well-done. I was personally not able to make clear connections between these essays and the overall theme of the book and its title. Perhaps if they had been fitted in between the initial three essays, I would've been more appreciative of their content, but because I was so astonished initially, the second half of the book was rather underwhelming to me. The essay entitled "An Education", particularly, seemed out-of-place with the other essays, while "The Portrait of an Artist" was more connected to the idea of "Minor Feelings". Cathy Park Hong is, without a doubt, an incredible writer whose works I will eagerly indulge in in the future, but only half of these essays left me in utter shock at their precision and beauty. I have found this to be the case with another essay collection that I have read, and so it is hard to give a definite rating for a book that has ignited me just as much as it has left me unsatisfied. 
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wrackcity's review against another edition

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reflective medium-paced

4.25

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clarabooksit's review against another edition

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reflective medium-paced

3.5

I liked Minor Feelings but I didn’t love it. Some essays really struck me, especially Hong’s discussions of racism, pop culture—loved her dismantling of Moonrise Kingdom—being Asian America and Korean, and how she confronts race head on, but others I struggled with—notably the essay about art school and her two college friends had some excellent parts but overall didn’t work for me.

Her writing is bold, judgmental and brutally honest. I admired her consistent interrogation of her own thoughts and motives as she ruthlessly questioned those of others. I definitely think it’s worth a read but it’s not a new favorite.
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nakutski's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional informative inspiring reflective fast-paced

5.0

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lilybear3's review against another edition

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challenging emotional informative reflective medium-paced

3.75

This book wasn't what I was expecting, but in a good way.  This book was a collection of essays and felt like a memoir. She talks about Asian Americans in history that I had never hear of until now and I am so glad that I could learn more about them.  As an Asian American myself, this book made me do a lot of self-reflecting.
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kayladaila's review against another edition

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challenging informative sad medium-paced

4.75

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