milk and honey

if you look for this book on amazon or at Barnes and noble, you'll find it under the category of poetry. in a logistical sense, that makes sense, but there's those who disagree with labeling this book under poetry. Rupi Kaur's milk and honey is a memoir of statements and remembrances that rarely follow any sort of conventional poetry schemes, or even rhyme. this book can also be finished in under 2 hours, which is incredibly quick, even a poetry book. so why is it considered one?

this book was released in 2015, a time in the digital internet landscape juuust before the great saturation of social media. before tiktok, before every app had it's own stories, before instagram had more users than tumblr, etc. most importantly, however, it was released around a time when 4th wave feminism was in effect: compared to previous of feminisms, this wave has the internet as a tool to spread it's message. you've probably seen a poem from this book as a quote in someone social media bio, on a social media post, or even recommended this book from another woman. it's because milk and honey came at a time when a generation of young women are growing up with the internet for the first time in human history. milk and honey is a book about experience (kaur's experience, in particular). because there is so much emotion and passion packed into a little amount of lines on each page, i consider it poetry. there are poems about sexual harrassment. there are poems about sexual gratification and emotional let-down. there are poems about some of kaur's hardest moments , being held in a lifetime of emotions and released it in a span of 200 short pages. kaur shares her thoughts, her wounds, her tears and her fears, and other people can recognize and relate from their own lifetimes. they share with others over the internet, and the message is spread further and further then ever possible before. more and more young women are able to find out that what they experienced in their life isn't normal or acceptable.

it's very easy to critique this book and rupi kaur's style of writing as choppy and lacking any substantial second or third meaning beyond face value. there are no commas in this book, no question marks, not very many reasonable line breaks or anything of the sort. it's almost like rupi kaur is giving you directions, and not poetry with room from interpretation in a good amount of the pages in this book.
kaur's writing is this book's strength. had it not been so harsh, so in your face, it would have no had it's message spread across the minds of many young women across the world.

overall, i believe this is a book that every young adult should read at least one time. (come on man, it takes less time then bingewatching a season of a tv show you don't even like.) this year, i started a resolution to read more books, and the simple nature (in terms of readability, not subject matter)of this book is a great reintroduction into reading. my review? 3.5/5.

• elias gil 1/11/22