Maybe I'm a terrible person, but I didn't love this memoir. I didn't dislike it either. I found the narrative compelling and enjoyed the prose. But I just found it long. I had to really force myself to keep reading at times. A good memoir should be hard to put down. While I felt for the author, this book just dragged. ( )

One of the best memoirs I've read. You feel very present throughout each step of her life, and though her life is vastly different from mine it was very relatable. High control religions that oppress women are everywhere, always just a different flavor of the same thing. The men are in control and the women must submit. I found it interesting how long she stayed with her family while clearly deconstructing her upbringing, that was both a strange choice and a brave one. You can certainly tell she is a poet from this as well, and I am learning to enjoy the prose of poets more and more. ( )

This was moving, raw, painful, and ultimately so redemptive and beautiful as we see love survive in the most hostile of conditions. Orthodox forms of almost every religion turn women into slaves. and Rastafari is no different. For a movement based on the rejection of colonial enslavement, it is a bit surprising that half the population so comfortably consigns the other half to a life of slavery for their pleasure. Thankfully Safiya Sinclair broke those bonds and soared and shared her family's story in the most beautiful prose imaginable. I feel grateful to have read this. ( )

Safiya Sinclair was born to parents who followed the Rastafari religion. She was the oldest of four, three of whom were girls. Her father was the king of his own household, and while he was loving when Safiya was young, he became obsessed with his girls' purity and physically abusive towards his family. Safiya and her siblings are encouraged to excel in school, and she finds an outlet in poetry - reading and relating to it, and then writing it.

I love a good memoir, and this one is so well done. Sinclair recounts her childhood experiences with clarity and really makes you feel for her and her siblings - and even her parents - as she processes what happened. As you'd expect from a poet, her writing is lovely and she reflects on her life, on her father and mother, in a way that makes the reader her confidant. There are definitely moments of intensity, abuse on the page, and things that are hard to read, but there's a lot of hope too. Great for fans of Educated and other memoirs about overcoming childhood adversity and abuse. ( )

In preparation for the Bob Marley move One Love I read How to Say Babylon: A Memoir by Safiya Sinclair about a woman who was raised in the Rastafarian religion. The religion worked for Marley and helped him write some powerful, hopeful songs beloved world-wide. Of course it also lead to his death since he refused to have his cancerous toe amputated. It seems to have done nothing good for Sinclair. The way she describes the religion, every man is the king of his castle and all the other people in it - wife, children - are his serfs. He can make whatever law he wants to govern his home. Some men make liberal laws, some men devise laws so restrictive that women have to confine themselves to a room away from the family for the duration of their menstruation. Sinclair's father was a singer 10 years after Marley's death. He wanted fame and respect but got disrespected by his band, his employers, and the white government. She does a good job of showing why her father was abusive but also shows just how abusive he was to his family, or rather to the females in his family. Like Tara Westover, Sinclair is saved by education, but she's had to fight for her freedom. ( )