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| Joy Harjo Photo via: usacbi.org |
While reading her memoir, I found myself treating her like kind neighbor who would sit and tell me stories. She came off as guarded but willing to share anything she could with anyone who would listen. I think that's why I enjoyed her book so much. I can't relate to a lot of her hardships, but she made me interested in her story. I felt like I needed to know what would happen to her next. I thought she was extremely credible and accurate in her stories, even though memories can get muddled after time. She told the truth, from her memory and her point of view.
Joy is an excellent storyteller. She goes so deeply into detail about her memories and her family, but very little into her emotions. We rarely see how she felt about the abusive nature of her father, or the romances she had in college. I wondered why she hardly tapped into that aspect, but during the Q+A someone in the audience had asked. She said that emotions weren't necessarily a part of her writing style. It wasn't the way the book needed to be written.
I found Joy to be so funny and kind during the Q+A. I wrote pages and pages of notes and sayings she said in her stories. These stories she told about her writing, her experiences, her family and her life hit me in such a profound way. Everything she said held a deeper meaning. Over and over she would say that we are all connected, that all of our stories are connected. It's been about two days since I saw her speak and the points she made are still floating around in my head. I'll probably remember a lot of what she said for years to come. Crazy Brave, definitely worth a read.
I did not think about the fact that she never really told us about her feelings while the book was going on. She is such an interesting person. I also have a lot of quotes from her book that keeps floating around in my head. She is very profound and almost eloquent. I would really like to re-read the book someday to get even more out of it. Thanks!
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