'Sea of Strangers', Lang Leav

Rating: 6/10

Overall Thoughts

I've always loved Lang Leav's poetry, especially Memories.  She typically writes of love and loss, grief and healing, power and weakness.  However, unlike her previous books, Sea of Strangers takes readers through a journey of self-love and self-discovery; it highlights empowerment and being strong without the need of a relationship. 

Favourites from 'Sea of Strangers'

"There are days when the melancholy settles on you like a sudden change in weather.  The kind of sadness that is intangible.  Like the presence of an ache where you can't pinpoint exactly where it hurts, you just know it does."

***

"Men don't compare us with other women.  They compare us to an ideal." 

***

"I though of you with

my heart already broken; 

I thought of you

as it was breaking again.  

I think of you now, 

as I am healing.  

With somebody new - 

I'll think of you then."  

***

"When you don't have the whole attention of someone, 

you find yourself begging for it from everyone."

***

"If they were meant to be in your life, nothing could ever make them leave.  If they weren't, nothing in the world could make them stay."

***

"I shed my past like layers of skin.  I let them fall at my feet like discarded clothing.  

I pay my dues and make amends for the sins of my youth.  

I step out from the shadows and into the light, naked and free.  

I can hear my spirit singing.  I can feel my wings unfolding.  

And the sky is calling my name."

***

"It's possible to move on from someone even if your heart refuses to let go.  And it's not something you need to consciously do.  It will just happen gradually, over time.  The ache will always be there, but the intensity will fade, and you'll find other beautiful things to fill your days with."

***

"If there is someone else for you now, then why do you linger here?
We've said our goodbyes, but your eyes won't let me go.  
I can see it on your face, everything you have ever felt for me.  
My name is still written there, a trial in permanent ink, a transcript of your heart."

***

"I have moved so far away from you that I have become a myth; a lie you tell yourself each night.  I am the one true thing you've held in the palm of your hand, the key to everything you wanted.  

Your name smiles at me from a crumpled envelope, addressed to the past.  Unsent and unseen,  Inside I wrote you a story about the moon, how night after night the darkness carved at the pale curve of her body until she became half the woman she was.

There is a word that hurts my heart - one I don't ever say out loud.  Like the shadow that lingers in the light, I can't separate myself from your memory.  But there are some nights when I look up at the sky, and the moon is whole again."

***

"Today I feel small - looked down on and disregarded.  My thoughts are of little importance.  My words have no bearing on the weight of the world.  I am tired of being taken for granted.  If only I could get back a fraction of what I give.  But my efforts go unnoticed, and my soul keeps wishing to be noticed, to be valued; to be understood."

***

"There was a time when I felt everything there was to feel with you.  From blinding rage to bitter jealously; searing love to utter despair.  And then, the worst one of all - sweet, irrational hope - like a hypnotic melody leading me to the edge of a cliff. 

Here I am on the other side, the baptism of every human emotion.  What happens after you feel everything there is to feel?  Somehow, there is a sense of comfort in knowing nothing will ever hit me quite as hard again.  Nothing will ever be as beautiful, but neither will anything hurt as much."

'The Handmaid's Tail', Margaret Atwood

Rating: 8.5/10

Overall Thoughts

This dystopia is set in the Republic of Gilead, a totalitarian state that has replaced the United States of America.  Due to the dangerously low production rates, Handmaids are assigned to bear children for elite couples who have trouble conceiving.  Oppression is evident, as these Handmaids are assigned names that are not their own.  The protagonist is called "Offred"; she is of-Fred, essentially implying that she belongs to her Commander.  Once a month, on 'ceremonial nights', Offred must lie on her back, her head resting on the Commander's wife's lap, and have ritual sexual intercourse with the Commander. 

In the Republic of Gilead, women's freedom are restricted - women are enslaved, forbidden to read, stripped of their names and identities, and casually raped.  Further, the women are physically segregated according to the colour of their clothing - the Commander's wives are dressed in blue, Marthas (ie cooks and maids) in green, Handmaid's in red, and children in white. 

Overall, the plot is outstanding, though characterization in 'The Handmaid's Tale' is considerably weak.  I highly recommend watching the series adaptation of the book, as the expanded characters and additional sub-plots provides a better visual. 

Favourites from 'The Handmaid's Tale'

"I remember that yearning, for something that was always about to happen and was never the same as the hands that were on us there and then, in the small of the back, or out back, in the parking lot, or in the television room with the sound turned down and only the pictures flickering over lifting flesh."  

"The night is mine, my own time, to do with as I will, as long as I am quiet.  As long as I don't move.  As long as I lie still."  

"There's always someone else.  Even when there is no one."  

"We lived in the gaps between the stories."  

"My hands are shaking.  Why am I frightened?  I've crossed no boundaries, I've given no trust, taken no risk, all is safe.  It's the choice that terrifies me.  A way out, a salvation."  

"There's time to spare.  This is one of the things I wasn't prepared for - the amount of unfilled time, the long parentheses of nothing.  Time as white sound."

"I have failed once again to fulfil the expectations of others, which have become my own."  

"He too is illegal, here, with me, he can't give me away.  Nor I him; for the moment we're mirrors.  He puts his hand on my arm, pulls me against him, his mouth on mine, what else comes from such denial?"  

"...nobody dies from lack of sex.  It's lack of love we die from.  There's nobody here I can love, all the people I could love are dead or elsewhere.  Who knows where they are or what their names are now?  They might as well be nowhere, as I am for them.  I too am a missing person."  

"Sanity is a valuable possession; I hoard it the way people once hoarded money.  I save it, so I will have enough, when the time comes."  

"But who can remember pain, once it's over?  All that remains of it is a shadow, not in the mind even, in the flesh.  Pain marks you, but too deep to see.  Out of sight, out of mind."  

"But remember that forgiveness too is a power.  To beg for it is a power, and to withhold or bestow it is a power, perhaps the greatest."  

"To want is to have a weakness.  It's this weakness, whatever it is, that entices me.  It's like a small crack in a wall, before now impenetrable.  If I press my eye to it, this weakness of his, I may be able to see my way clear."  

"The more difficult it was to love the particular man beside us, the more we believed in Love, abstract and total." 

"Time has not stood still.  It has washed over me, washed me away, as if I'm nothing more than a woman of sand, left by a careless child too near the water.  I have been obliterated for her.  I am only a shadow now, far back behind the glib shiny surface of this photograph.  A shadow of a shadow, as dead mothers become.  You can see it in her eyes: I am not there."  

"I would like to be without shame.  I would like to be shameless.  I would like to be ignorant.  Then I would not know how ignorant I was."  

"I wish this story were different.  I wish it were more civilized.  I wish it showed me in a better light, if not happier, then at least more active, less hesitant, less distracted by trivia.  I wish it had more shape.  I wish it were about love, or even about sunsets, birds, rainstorms, or snow."  

"We make love each time as if we know beyond a shadow of a doubt that there will never be any more, for either of us, with anyone, ever.  And then when there is, that too is always a surprise, extra, a gift."