by Nora Hikari (Author)
Still My Father's Son by Nora Hikari weaves a complex & delicate tale of love, religious trauma, queerness, and self/selves. As we are systematically walked upstream through a shimmering river in which shrewd emotion and aching observations cascade, we bear witness to God & the lessons of his son, Uriel; to the speaker declaring that "Every person you have been deserves a burial and a headstone;" to the Vicious Self pleading to the Small Self, repeatedly through burning tears, that she is loved. A devastating intimacy surrounds this collection, omnipresent in moments where language is sharp enough to cut. Hikari's work is an exploration into self-love at its most fractured and literal, and a beautiful homage to what it means to heal from/with/by deep-rooted pain. For, despite all the hurt in the world, "you can live. You can. You can live for all of the people we could be tomorrow, if you try."