jiujensu's reviews
439 reviews

This is as much a memoir as about fighting itself. The subjects are woven together perfectly. She knows what she's talking about historically and experientially. Far better than The Gift of Fear or whatever is generally recommended in self-defense and women in sports. And less like a textbook (more of a narrative) than Real Knockouts - though it's a good one too.

There are good discussions on a variety of things - self-defense (myths, studies, she has the same misgivings I do), blood (period=bad; man's face bleeding=impressive; woman's face bleeding=unacceptable), tears, existing/working in male dominated spaces/sports.

Hilariously mentioned early on are writers that write passionately about boxing but don't really do it - Ernest Hemingway, Joyce Carrol Oates, Norman Mailer. Also there's a beneficial discussion of masculinity - the ideas of gyms or sports becoming diluted (by women's participation) and the idea that masculinity needs to be carefully guarded - if proof it shouldn't be preserved. 

Mental toughness is a great section set up by the question: "How are emotion, empathy, and vulnerability connected to the drive, focus, and aggression required of a fighter?" The three part definition of the term was useful too: the ability to understand yourself and your capabilities and to own them. 

I always appreciate calling attention to the knowledge gap in medicine - science/health research generally is one size fits all with male as the default. 

She takes a much needed swing at the transgender panic as well, exposing it as policing women's bodies. They test for xx chromosomes - she notes women are tested for testosterone but men aren't tested or banned for higher natural testosterone. Michael Phelps wasn't banned for his long arms and flexible joints or Ian Thorpe for his flipper feet.

Often seen as a weakness or loss of credibility in male dominated spaces, this is a better explanation of tears in training. 
Quote from von Duuglus Ittu  (of There is Crying in Muay Thai): "isn't a response to anything directly but more the general need for release after feeling quite pressured and bottled up by being ineffective in any varying degree for the past hour, minutes, days, weeks, years, whatever..."

The author is a kickboxer and boxer but i think all woman who do any combat sport for fun or professionally would enjoy and relate to much of it.

Yeah, this dry summary doesn't reflect how much I loved and related to this book, so the stars will have to do.

It didn't start strong for me, but as the history of Cyprus got woven in with the character and plot development and a smattering of tree, insect, bird, butterfly and bat facts, it finished so strong a sentient tree didn't even bother me - in fact I'd say I liked it.

Like all great books, there is the main story, this one about a mute refugee who cannot speak and then all the other things it makes you think about. Obviously, there's silence - when you choose it and when it's imposed on you. Protests in Syria vs proests by liberal people in thre west. Religion - how it's divisive and how it coheres. Bigotry, democracy, patriotism, borders, and language too. 
A hopeful ending without too much closure. 
Excellent.

There's so much. The intro starts with the early 2000s, when it was written. These camps were referenced after 9/11. Bush & Co  wanted to round up up Arabs and others they deemed disloyal. I had almost thought i was remembering this wrong the way people describe it now (they are SURE they and all journalists opposed war and protested vigorously early on - that wasn't exactly so... until later...). They've forgotten the vengeance of the population and complicity around war, the hatred against Muslims and anyone they thought looked Arab. 

I didn't realize that Japanese Americans tended to downplay their imprisonment because it wasn't extermination camps in Europe - a familiar thing we do with trauma.

One reason why we need to remember:

"Thus, while concentration camps and new prisoners of the home front may seem an impossibility today, especially in light of the end of the Cold War and the elimination of the Communist menace, the danger of a repeat of the Second World War Japanese American experience remains. The fluid transfer of guilt by association from a racial to an ideological group in the 1950's suggests the readiness of Americans to find new enemies in times of perceived emergency. Given this predisposition, the repeal of Title II in 1971 and the caveat placed in Section 4001 of Title 18 of the United States Code are but poor protection should a new and serious threat to internal security, either real of imagined, arise in the future."

You'd think after this, if we cared anything for the values we claim, we'd have shored this up and made it impossible. But we have not.

A four generation story that includes (i can only imagine) composite characters of people the author met in Japan. Coincidentally, I'm reading a book about Japanese internment in the US and this book provides a representation of the other side of that coin - Japanese colonialism and their abhorrent treatment of Koreans.

I keep looking for patterns or meaning. "A woman's lot is suffering" keeps coming up in almost every story. Also there was a pattern of the futility or destructiveness of being governed by things you can't control - ethnicity, being born out of wedlock, having "gangster" blood. In that way, this was a really really sad series of connected stories.

One of the better historical fictions I've read. Things like this should replace those things people hold up as "classic" that glorify slavery, slaveholders, and white supremacy. Who wants to know what those old white men and women think? You get a far more complete picture of the time period when the story is concerned mostly with those who endured lifelong punishment for existing.