Another book S told me about. Her mom tells me she likes to read books where Bi & Lesbian characters, especially when they are Brown young woman, really speak to her. S likes to be able to see herself in the characters she reads about sometimes and not always feel like White girls are the only girls who love, hurt, fly, fall, feel, shine, becomes heroes, become villains, learn, and grow.
She gets not only that here in Juliet Takes a Breath, but Juliet has the same feelings as S. Juliet is a book nerd from the Bronx. She is smart, gay, loves the library, and she is Puerto Rican. She also isn't some skinny little wisp of a thing and she loves, and learns to love even more, her roundness. Juliet learns that love has so many forms and none are better than another. Her mom, who she loves dearly, loves her fiercely but in a way she has to grow to understand and really see. Her cousin is her guide to the Queer world when she finally realizes it and lets her in. And Juliet is beautiful and brave, she just takes a long time, longer than the reader, to realize it.
This was a great and empowering read. It was also a reminder to check my privilege at the door.
I'd like to take a moment to comment on white privilege because it becomes important to Juliet's summer as Harlow's intern. If you are White and deny you have or are offended at the suggestion of White Privilege you need to stop and ask why. We don't get followed around stores, we don't fear for our lives when stopped by police, we don't have people afraid to get on elevators with us or hold their purses closer to their sides when we walk past. There is a very real protection afforded by the luck of being born in skin that is "white." Yes, as women we all, before race (a social construct as much as gender is one too) is factored in, share a history of oppression and victimization, but it is worse for women of color, trans women, gay women...and to deny this or be offended by it is the very height of privilege. I beilieve we have a choice and I choose to use this to advocate for change and not to benefit from it. You can too, and one way you can do that is read books that make you feel uncomfortable and learn from them, ask people how you can be a better ally, what they need, what they have been through, and then LISTEN, really listen, check your pride and humble yourself enough to really listen.
Ok, stepping off my soapbox...Juliet is amazing, I love her hard. Harlow is imperfect but wants to be better. Stepping out of ones comport zone isn't easy but sometimes the best of life happens for us when we do and that is what Juliet does and oh how her life becomes more full and interesting. Gabby Rivera is amazing with words. Thank you so much my dear S for putting this book in my life!! Thank you Gabby for making me uncomfortable and happy and feel love and joy and pain and fear and hope!!!
(Finished June 27, 2018)
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