What do readers think of Something Like Beautiful by Asha Bandele? Write your own review.

This is a beautifully written memoir of Asha Bandele's journey through "single" motherhood in NYC. (Technically, Asha is not single, but her husband is in prison.) I admire the author's honesty, which is sometimes almost painful to read. There are no fairy-tale endings here; in other words, real life.

If you enjoyed reading Nickel and Dimed, the story of a single woman trying to live on a minimum wag and James Frey's, A Million Little Pieces, a drug addict's memoir, you night enjoy Something Like Beautiful by Asha Bandele.

This memoir deals with being Black, being woman, wife and mother. Asha has incredible self-knowledge, knowledge that opens your eyes to 2008
Black issues and experiences; but also mirrors aspects of the human experience that could be life changing.

Asha has an unusual style of writing that captures the poet in us. Individual ideas branch out reminiscent of the experience of surfing the net. Her repetition of words, phrases and sentences that help us understand the inner wanderings of her subconscious.

This quote from Chapter 23, p.164, says it all.

I want my wounds to be acknowledged.
I want them healed.
And I want myself back.
That's what we all have to say, at some point what we have to demand.
Give me back.
Give me back.

This is a memoir about a young woman dealing with depression as well as raising a young child as a single mother. I, initially, had quite a bit of trouble getting into her account of her life which I thought was somewhat overdone. However, the more I continued to read, particularly when she finally recognized that she finally needed help, I realized how beautifully she does write...she is truly a poet!

I approached this story with great curiosity - I have often wondered about what type of woman would marry an incarcerated felon. I thought that perhaps this book would provide some insight as to what drew her to this person and situation that, to me, was like playing with fire. So I had a very open and eager mind to reading her story. At the end – I cannot say that I am disappointed even though my original question went basically unanswered – but what I didn’t expect what that during the journey of Bandele’s story, more questions arose and were answered to in a beautiful and honest approach to herself with regard to her daughter (and future) as well as to her past. This is a story of one woman’s survival and endurance and I applaud that approach. Where I had a problem, is where she reigned in all of the other single mothers “out there” as sharing in her story and struggle. In a nutshell – eh, no. Not even close.

This book never engaged me. Usually, within the first few chapters of a book, I want to read more or never put the book down. Not so with "Something Like Beautiful". The writing trailed on without direction and seemed repetitive at times when describing the author's life and feelings. I wouldn't recommend this book.

If you are looking for a book about a strong woman who sacrificed everything to take care of her daughter alone... this is not the book for you. If you are a single mother and looking for a person to relate to that has struggled like you have and survived.. this is not the book for you.

If you are looking for a book about a whiny victim who put her own self into this position and wants to use the race and sexism card and act like she is the only one who has ever raised a child.. then sure waste a few days. I AM a single mother and I can say I have never wanted to slap a person more then this person. I have struggled to raise my child because raising a child is a struggle. Things have not been easier for me because I am white. Things have not come more easily because I have a boy.

Have I looked at my child and thought what if... yeah of course. But I didn't need loads of therapy to be reminded to pull up my big girl panties and just deal with it. She created the shark pit she was in ... and just sitting still isn't going to save her!!!

I Really did not enjoy this book at all. The main character made one bad choice after another and tried to blame it on the fact that she is a black oppressed woman. I felt sorry for her daughter. In case she hasn't heard the news we have a black President. This book really irritated me!

Over all I found Asha Bandele’s Something Like Beautiful to be an engrossing story. I liked reading about what happened to her, and how these events made her feel; I sympathized 98% with the author, even as I wished she had made other choices; and I loved meeting her precious, precocious daughter. The message was uplifting as the book ended, and I can imagine this work will be a boon to other single parents, especially women.

Although the author never made the point in so many words that children of single parents are often, of necessity, more mature than other kids of their ages, I do believe this to be true. The relationship this mother and daughter have is truly a beautiful thing, and I think Bandele fails to give herself enough credit for this fact. On the other hand, one wonders about down the road, how difficult it may be for them to separate in the normal, healthy way of all kids and their mothers. It’s a poignant fact of life for just such families that growing up to be independent may be more problematic for children like Bandele’s daughter and for the parents, also, that cleaving may be particularly painful. In other words, I believe this book is an important sociological portrait, given the prevalence of single mothers.

I have only one reservation about Something Like Beautiful, which may not even be fair, considering that the book I read was not the final edition. And this is that, despite the fact that Bandele has won awards as an author, I found her language to be vague and/or ambiguous in numerous places. I am not talking about typos or repetitions of words, or misspellings. Instead I found pronouns whose antecedents were not clear, or sentences such as the following, which I found by opening the book at random: “ ... we revealed ourselves to ourselves wholly ...” rather than “... we revealed ourselves to each other wholly ...” and instead of “After five years ... we did what most people who are in love are want -- and able -- to do,” I certainly hope she meant to say “are wont ... to do.” OK, the latter may have been an editorial error, but there were many, many sentences that I had to read several times in order to find the meaning in them. Here’s an example of an awkward sentence (the last one): “You can still make it out,... but you have to squint. And even then, blurs.” Does she mean, “And even then it blurs” or “And even then, you see a blur”? Sometimes I chalked up the ambiguity to her being a poet, but I usually enjoy reading the prose of poets, so maybe it’s just that the work is still in need of a firm editorial hand. (I suppose that editing one’s own writing is different from editing that of another, since the author has also worked as an editor.)

Despite the foregoing paragraph, I found Something Like Beautiful, by Asha Bandele, to be well worth the reading.