Harare Review of Books

252 pages.

First published on Apr. 7, 2023 (Ohio State University Press)

Memoir/Poetry.

This is an experimental work, a mix of memoir and poetry, where Imperial sets out to dissect and translate Rudyard Kipling’s The White Man’s Burden. It’s also a lamentation about identity and longing, about a family fractured by its own struggles and immigration, and also an exploration of citizenship, Empire, and colonisation. 

I loved that something like half the book is written in Tagalog, with no clear translation for non-Tagalog readers; the hybrid text is sometimes impenetrable, which English can be for non-English speakers, and that’s a  wonderful and unusual inversion. There is also lots of repetition – pages and pages – which the author generously explains in the text.

In all, a thoughtful and exciting experiment with language, one that I enjoyed. I would like to get my hands on the final copy to pore over the ways Imperial uses fragments of language to transmit meaning and ideas.

Thank you to Edelweiss and to Ohio State University Press for the DRC.