Cracked.

cracked

/krakt/

adjective

1. 1.

   damaged and showing lines on the surface from having split without coming apart.

Alexander, M. (1993).  Fault lines: A memoir (2nd ed.) [Kindle Fire version]. New York: The Feminist Press of the City University of New York.

The figurative language used in Meena Alexander's memoir is beautifully painted across the pages.  "I sit here writing, for I know that time does not come fluid and whole into my trembling hands. All that is here comes piecemeal, though sometimes the joints have fallen into place miraculously, as if the heavens had opened and mango trees fruited in the rough asphalt of upper Broadway" (Chapter 1).  I'm instantly drawn to her words through her storytelling and imagery.  The first thing I notice is Alexander's use of the word "her" when she is referencing herself--the past version of herself.  The "cracked" or broken version.  She was born in India, but has lived quite the journey and now resides in New York City.  
It's interesting how she tells her story by intertwining her past and present.  To me it makes logical sense to write as one would speak, while swinging from one's past then propelling into the present.  I believe this style adds depth to Alexander's story.  She begins to illustrate a life full of many lives if that makes sense.  "Sometimes I am torn apart by two sorts of memories, two opposing ways of being towards the past...a life embedded in a life, and that in another life, another, and another" (Chapter 3).

Growing up in a Christian military family, she didn't want for much while in India.  As in, she seems to have been quite privileged.  Life revolves around the men in the family.  They are the head of the household and it's believed that a woman serves her husband with her place being at home.  I wonder how she will navigate through life when she crosses into another country.  A burning question I have, as I continue to read...

What will she face as she moves from country to country?  How will the men in her life shape her past and present?
I'm truly enjoying this cross-cultural story of a woman displaying such poetic grace and turmoil. 
 

Cracked Skin

by gelumbe