I'm So Fine: A List of Famous Men \u0026 What I Had On by Khadijah Queen

I'm So Fine: A List of Famous Men \u0026 What I Had On Reviews

• 
  Roxane

  Sharp prose poems that capture black womanhood, the ways of men, and life in Los Angeles.
• 
  David

  These are wonderful pieces right from the start, Queen's ability to instantly bring forth such vivid voice, images, and tone. An effect built cumulatively though. More disturbing aspects already scattered throughout, a different kind of insight sharpened and intensified the more of the pieces I read. As that strengthened, the gravity increased and the ability to look as entertainment became more and more questionable, requiring me to think about increasingly uncomfortable questions on my side of the page. There's a great deal more going on than it appeared at first, leaving me with more to wrestle with than I expected once the book was closed. Some stuff is right out there, but there seems to be a great deal of subtlety at work as well. A lot to think about.
• 
  TaraShea Nesbit

  The form of the famous man + what they did + what the narrator did+ what the narrator wore gives way to so much more. Within that frame is humor, violence, grief, love, and heartache. So so so good.
• 
  Melissa

  At first glance these prose poems appear to about a pretty girl bragging about meeting and getting hit on my famous men. A deeper reflection shows these thought-provoking vignettes to be about the male gaze, sexual harassment, rape culture, black womanhood, growing up in La LA Land where celebrities are commonplace, dating in mid-life, being a single mom, and how fashion reflects time, place and how we reimagine of ourselves. They show both the internal and the external self. Some are funny, some are sad, some are shocking. But most of all, they are non-stop readable. After reading one, you must read them all.
  
  I love how re-readable these poems are. A complete joy.
• 
  Siobhan

  I recently re-read this collection and was reminded why I always refer to it as my favorite book of poetry. Powerful and irreverent.
• 
  Charlotte Abotsi

  I’M SO FINE is written as a narrative, with Queen recalling memories of men and what she wore at the time she met them. Every poem kicks off with extraordinary titles that speak to each other: the 3rd poem is titled “Dave Chappelle also looked at my ass” and the 4th, “Chris Rock did the same thing”, directly launching into narrative prose. I found it empowering to read poems that defy the traditional understanding of poetry, by forgoing the use of common stanza forms. ⁣
  ⁣
  This book addresses the male gaze head on: “& the truth of beauty means both spotlights & shadows find you,” and the dangers of it: “I won’t say if my coworker got hurt but she made a fact out of fear & once I remember makeup over bruises the 1990s dangerous for women like any other decade like now.” Queen also examines beauty politics and black women’s power and perception, and our sexuality: “my definition of seduction has all the way changed & makes me wonder how long I have to wait for the world to change too.” ⁣
  ⁣
  There was rigor in the simplicity of these poems that allowed me to realize and understand that there is indeed power in the every day narratives of black women. And I’m thankful Queen is documenting this for us all to learn from. ⁣
  ⁣
  A line that will never leave me: “All praises due to the part of me that listens to herself first.” Thank you, Queen. ⁣
• 
  Felicia Owens

  This was such a compelling poetry (?) collection. Queen recounts her encounters with famous men and what she was wearing at the time. It was profound, using quick snapshots that had me reflecting on all the ways women's clothing and bodies become the center of any/every encounter with a man. I will be thinking about this one for a long time to come.
• 
  Aaron Rachel

  Amazing, beautiful, funny narrative composed of prose poems. Queen tells a story of girl- and womanhood, toxic masculinity and shitty guys who embody it, growing up and giving less of a fuck, and the importance of what you have on. Love.
• 
  Karen

  This is pitch perfect.
• 
  Vonetta

  This was delightful! I love the breathlessness of it, especially in the stories that go from silly to serious in 3.5.
• 
  Sara

  Khadijah Queen has one of the most unique voices in poetry today.
• 
  Megan Willoughby

  Tasty dance of lust & pop-culture & thrift store mix CDs. Queen's "I" is a woman I will never be - but Lord, she laughs the loudest in the room.
• 
  Wynne • RONAREADS

  Khadijah Queen’s collection, “I’m So Fine” should be called: “Poetry for People Who Don’t Think They Like Poetry.”
  
  As a young woman growing up in Los Angeles, Queen met quite literally everyone. From Tupac to Prince to Montell to members of Jodeci and a lame member of Snoop Dogg’s crew, her poetic recollections of these encounters and indeed, what she was wearing, will make you laugh out loud and nod. There’s a universality she captures being young and female, cruising with your friends and crushing on a dude. The specifics of Queen’s story, her identity and experiences as a woman of color in LA in the 90s—those seep in too, giving her poems a deeper layer than what is first felt on the surface.
  
  If you ever get a chance to hear Queen read, do! I had the honor of hearing her perform these poems at a recent Cave Canem event, and even with a wad of gum tucked in her cheek, the words were given new life by their creator. Hearing her read the run on lines aloud, making faces and sounds, letting the words of the collection’s last poem ring out into the space—oh my it was lovely.
• 
  Sarina

  The title got me. I felt like the title alone spoke deeply about the contents.
  
  I gave this book three stars because I wanted to give it 3.5, but I don't know that I would be willing to give it 4. It was good, although at times it felt a little repetitive, since every work was the same in format and information (true to the title: which man and what she was wearing). I do think that a few pieces in particular made such a strong impact on me that I wanted to love the whole thing more.
  
  Some was hard to read, and I couldn't catch the sound of the piece, but others created a rhythm naturally which helped me to experience it even deeper. Ultimately, I did enjoy the book, and may revise my star count after sitting with it a while longer.
  
  I feel like this book is important. I want people to read it. I want men to read it, especially. I think it means something.
• 
  Laurel Perez

  A master of subtlety, Queen tells seemingly simple stories that interest the reader at first, but gnaw at you as you turn over the underneaths of the story later. Because even though you feel like you’ve learned so much about her, there are still pockets where you’re not sure you know the whole story, or even understand it. There are still places where if she kept telling the same story, you’d still find yourself surprised, looking at her in a new light, thinking, “How could I have missed that?” In her encounter with Suge Knight (through a friend), it took me three times to read to notice the weight of “& I won’t say if my coworker got hurt but she made a fact out of fear”. I was so busy thinking about Tupac’s passing, that bruises and bloodied anything were far from my mind. Queen captures truth through ordinary so well that the violence is so easy to miss, but important not to.
• 
  Cedric

  I thoroughly enjoyed this remarkably revealing collection of prose poems about Queen’s encounters with men of varying degrees of fame, which mostly take place during her time living in LA. There are quite a range of experiences here, many of which feel very timely in the #metoo era. There is the time the Snoop Dogg-affiliated (and unfortunately named) Lil’ ½ Dead gets mad at Queen and her sister for displaying insufficient raunch on a video set, a night out during which she endures threats as she protects a drunk friend from a belligerent man, and the men who invite the author and friends out or to their homes with one thing in mind. But there is also a fond memory of meeting Louis Farrakhan, the time Queen was too scared to get up on stage with Prince, and interesting close encounters with DeVante from Jodeci, Morris Chestnut, Eddie Murphy, and of course, Ed Norton.
  
  For readers of a certain age, the remarkable detail with which Queen relates the clothing and music of the time transports as good narrative often does, as in “Right after Jason’s Lyric came out”:
  
  …I saw Bokeem Woodbine at the Foot Locker…he walked in with a really skinny woman with straight black hair to her knees & white shorts & a racer-back tank top she tried on a bunch of sneakers & didn’t want any of them so they left kind of together he seemed irritated & didn’t hold the door open for her I had my white Guess T-shirt with the gold letters tucked into high-waisted ankle-zipped acid-washed jeans & I thought I was fly
  
  Lest my mention of #metoo lead some to think this is merely another vehicle to condemn men for the ways we (all too often) indicate that we are attracted to a woman- 1) so many of us know, or are, or were these guys, if we’re honest; and 2) for all the leeriness of many of the men in the book, Queen occasionally concedes that she doesn’t always mind being noticed, and doesn’t pretend that she doesn’t take notice of men. From “I saw Q-Tip at the Original Pancake House in Fort Lee”:
  
  …he walked in with a white girl dressed in pink Uggs & a matching velour Juicy tracksuit & he breezed past our table in his brown leather jacket & clean Cortez sneaks…he had immaculate skin & is way taller than I though & hella fine so I don’t even remember what I wore that day I mean shit
  
  (“I mean s—t”- recently I had the pleasure of reading with Queen and confess that I was thinking with a memory like that, I need to look halfway decent today…)
  
  It occurs to me now how, considered as a whole, one might think of these prose poems as modern twists on Molly Bloom’s soliloquy in the final chapter of Ulysses-they share that breathlessness and much of that frankness (though Queen is more guarded and philosophically contemplative than Molly, IMO…) While the structure is repetitive until its powerful postscript (though necessarily so perhaps-we are forewarned that this is “a list”)-each episode is such a fascinating look into the life of the poet that the collection is a page turner nonetheless. Sometimes, the book grabs you for its tragedy, as when Queen describes her relationship with an abusive lover or a night out with a friend willing to do anything for a night with Tupac; at others, it moves you with the introspective asides with which she often interrupts narrative, as in “When I saw Ochocinco…”
  
  …I had to think of all he ways I had been fake or lied about my feelings or calculated a response & why risk dismissal of a real self when you can create a façade one easily taken down and reconstructed why let people into your real house with its rust & clutter & unframed prints & desiccated parsley in the crisper & so what if your history of poverty is evident & you ask yourself is that who you are & who are you afraid of or is the surface attention itself your addiction…
  
  [Because Queen so frequently offers these kinds of reflections on the episodes she describes, the collection lacks the “mystery” and the divining of meaning required of a more traditional offering, such as her earlier Black Peculiar. This is not a criticism-instead, I think it makes it a great gift for someone who doesn’t like, or think they don’t like, poetry. For those of us that do like poetry and are used to wrangling with a text, “I’m So Fine” might be a welcome change of pace.]
  
  The book’s postscript finds Queen conducting a midlife emotional inventory. Uninterrupted by the vicissitudes of particular days and moments, the mood of the postscript is a somber, arresting reflection upon how her experiences with men have changed her over time and what she’s learned about herself along the way:
  
  …I cut off my hair because I wanted to begin again with something on my body no man has touched. I wanted to press rewind. I still want the kind of purity that cures me of acculturated entitlement. I want a little silence when I walk down the street or get into the back seat of a hired car in any city I travel to. Maybe I have to marry myself…I want to stop reacting and keep creating and to do that maybe I need a new kind of hijab that makes me safer unseen, free of both sound and adornment. I could use that kind of safety.
  
  Sartre said hell is other people…A man can break you with your own love if you don't remember who you are.
  
  These last sentiments might have appropriately concluded the book. And yet it seems Queen isn't content to leave us with despair, choosing self-affirmation and an auspicious memory:
  
  ..All praises due to the part of me that listens to herself first. The first time I drew a rose I couldn't stop layering in new petals. (less)
• 
  CherryErich

  Ms. Queen's voice is a fascinating mix of indifference, confidence, and reminiscence. Each poem flows into the next making this a book that's hard to put down. Appearance plays an important role throughout the narrative, as evident by the title. Since her clothing is mentioned in every poem, it shows how someone's appearance affects the quality of their experience, and how others will perceive them. And with this being multiple stories of a Black woman's experience with men, her appearance also applies to how she is approached and how the men will write her off as something lesser than she truly is.
  A great read from start to finish, and something I'll be returning to many times.
• 
  Sarah

  I loved this book; it was just a delight to read. A more accurate subtitle might be "a list of famous men and what I/she/he/they had on." Which is to say, Queen starts this book with a formula, famous man + Queen + what she wore, but varies it as the storyline progresses. Sometimes her mom interacted with the famous man. Often we get to know what both he wore and what the woman in question wore. Sometimes a famous man is present but the real action involves an anonymous man who was also in the club or the restaurant. Sometimes the famous man isn't even present. Smartly assembled and quietly infuriating.
• 
  Dana

  This collection was kind of a mixed bag for me, to tell the truth. It's got a very strong gimmick, and the only poems that resonated with me were ones that transcended the gimmick. I'm partially biased because I'm not super into prose poetry anyway, but the majority of this book felt relatively repetitive and not in a good way. It certainly has some profound moments, but thematically, it focuses a lot on shallowness/celebrity culture, and just because it knows it's shallow doesn't excuse it from being shallow. The voice was really likable, and when a poem was good, it was very good, but in the end, I thought it was only okay.
• 
  Susanna

  I'm torn between 4 and 5 stars perhaps because of the book's lack of physical heft, but I think that's the reason it deserves more. The book's lens is turned on "famous men," but really it's about the author and about the culture she lives in -- she just remembers these particular encounters because the men were famous. More, it's a sharp, funny, self-deprecating look at pop culture (fashion) from this particular woman's teen years in Los Angeles (and even into her mother's Detroit) on through maturity. Meanwhile her external world doesn't really change, but her internal world does.
• 
  Megan

  This book is very outspoken on women’s issues and paints vivid vignettes about he things women face from men, especially those in power. It is written in run on style that makes the reader face every moment in a rush and process at the end. It simulates a woman’s experience in an uncomfortable situation in that way, echoing the lack of agency that can sometimes occur and the lack of ability to process once something has happened. You both follow Queen’s own experience, and insert yourself into that experience because it is all too familiar. Great read.
• 
  Rebecca Kuder

  This book is hypnotic and gorgeous and it is so good to be alive right now and be living at a time when this book exists. My friend loaned it to me, and I am ordering a copy for my shelf, because, well, if you’ve read it, you know why, and if you are yet to read it, you will soon discover why.
  
  Queen builds a rock-solid feminist narrative—a memoir formed by tight, crystalline, lyrical fragments, whose accumulation seems as effortless as how iridescent shells appear and gather on the beach, carried by waves of awareness and poetry, to shine in the sun…
• 
  Samantha C.

  This is a fantastic book of prose poetry that speaks to how people and society treat women in general, as well as specifically Black Muslim women, through the author’s own experiences. Obviously, it’s not speaking as the authority on these things, but it relays a personal perspective that I found deeply impactful. It was just filled to the brim with gorgeous, powerful words and it culminated into such a wonderful ending. I learned and I laughed and I worried and I loved it. :)
  
  Also, I haven’t read a lot of poetry, but this is by far my favorite prose collection 💕
  
  5/5 🩵🩷🩵🩷🩵 + 😮
• 
  Kai Bluntson

  A book and poet who helped me find myself a little more. It was an assigned reading, but it was one the best assignments I could have hoped for. Her stories of being young and living in Hollywood and Los Angeles in the 80s and 90s helped me understand her world more, and I felt all of her emotions despite her lack of structure and punctuation, but those were her intentions to further show her innocence and adolescent years. I look forward to reading more of her work. :)
• 
  Robin

  Clever, devastating, insightful, and striking.
  
  Towards the end, admittedly, some of the poems started to blur together for me in terms of following the established pattern of man + outfit + commentary, but that doesn't diminish the power of the voice and imagery here, just points to my own reading fatigue.
• 
  Eliza

  Narrative prose is hit or miss with me - and this was a hit. Queen has a way of weaving in hilarity, hypocrisy, & heartbreak all in the same piece. She manages to provide a colorful narrative to the reader that puts you right inside the world she describes - down to the outfit.
  
  I look forward to reading more of her work. Good shit.
• 
  Emily Oomen

  I think this book is very creative, but one problem I found with it is the way it fictionalizes celebrities to be predatory. Celebrities are people, and I don't think someone should write about real people doing horrific things. I would not like it if someone wrote a fake book about me doing something sexually predatory. Just my two cents.
• 
  Sophia Steiner

  “& maybe it was me maaaaaaaaybe & after some drama & some therapy & seeing him again a decade later & making out again & saying no to the undefined because you can’t rush a Pisces into making a decision I am tough enough to know what I can take & satisfied with keeping stars on the screen & out of my eyes my
  well-used heart”
• 
  Tirzah

  4.82
  I was assigned this book in a college English course. I bought this instead of renting it from the book store because I had a feeling I was going to love it. I was right. I'm writing this months after reading so I can't write a detailed review. This is my favorite book I've ever been assigned and one of my favorite books of all time.
  That's all for now.