Title: All My Rage

Author: Sabaa Tahir

Date Read: March 6, 2023

Snapshot of the Book

This story spans from Lahore, Pakistan to Juniper, California, following Salahudin, Noor, and Salahudin's parents. The narrative explores heavy themes including Islamophobia, alcoholism, domestic violence, friendship, and forgiveness.

Trigger warnings: This book contains sensitive content including discussions of alcoholism, domestic violence, and Islamophobia. Readers should approach with care.

Snapshot of the Book in My Classroom

Sabaa Tahir's writing craft in this novel offers numerous teaching opportunities. Her techniques include:

• Repetition: Strategic use of repeated phrases for emphasis
• Italics: Used to highlight internal thoughts and important moments
• Single-word sentences: Creating dramatic impact and pacing

The novel incorporates Elizabeth Bishop's poem "One Art," which becomes a crucial element in understanding the characters' journeys. This provides an excellent opportunity to teach how literature can incorporate and build upon existing works.

Tahir also employs an interesting narrative technique by juxtaposing truth versus written narratives, showing how characters' written words don't always align with their lived experiences. This creates rich discussion opportunities about reliability, perspective, and the gap between what we say and what we feel.

Snapshot of the Book in My Life

One of the delightful aspects of this book is its musical references. There's actually a Spotify playlist that accompanies the novel, featuring all the songs referenced throughout the story. Music becomes another layer of storytelling, connecting the characters across time and space.

The way Tahir weaves together Pakistani and American cultures resonated deeply, showing how identity isn't about choosing one or the other, but about finding ways to honor all parts of yourself.

Throughout the novel Noor is plugged into music or at the very least referring to it. Here is (a mostly complete) Noor's Playlist. It already has some songs I do love, wonder what else I may discover?