Citizen: An American Lyric

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Average customer rating 4.7 (3 comments)

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This book is beautiful and moving. The storytelling within the poetry captures feelings and thoughts that can be so difficult to articulate and does so in such a seamless and accessible way. It's a short and meaningful read.

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I read this book in one sitting. Not because it was easy to read, but because it was that compelling. Ms. Rankine's book is timely, showing many covert and overt racist experiences she as a Black woman experiences on a daily basis. Much of the book describes her daily experiences, but she uses "you" instead of "I" to illustrate them, causing the reader to be in her shoes, at least momentarily. If you like this book, read another one by her, "Don't Let Me Be Lonely". I'm happy she's getting the positive praise she deserves.

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Citizen is a formally daring work of essay, poetry and visual art that is both powerful and deeply unsettling. Citizen pulls you in and pushes you away, you find solidarity here, and you find shame. It makes you righteously angry and it implicates you. It is dangerously alive. Citizen is a journey. Take it many times. It will reshape you and replace you. It will take you to different places or will take a now different you to the same places differently. Short-listed for(and hopefully soon to win) the National Book Award, Claudia Rankine's Citizen is essential reading and a perfect pairing with her previous collection Don't Let Me Be Lonely.