Babylon

1. Babylon by Eula Biss
2. This creative non-fiction piece focused on a woman’s experiences in California. The author jumps from her experiences to stories of Babylon, which share similarities such as: “the hanging gardens were built for a homesick wife. Amytis of the Medes found the flat, dry land of Babylon depressing, and so her gardens were planted on terraces to look like hillsides”, Palm trees were all I could see there for a long time. The palm trees were how I knew I was a long way from home. Both stories exhibit feelings of missing home.
3. The way the story is set up is interesting. The piece jumps back and forth between historic stories of Babylon and the author’s own experiences. It intrigued me that the author did have research and history in the parts about Babylon…and I didn’t get bored reading it! The author wrote just the right amount of history in her piece to keep it intriguing and not boring.
4. Writing upon her own experiences adds authenticity to her piece. Writers bullshit a lot but her piece has facts when it talks about Babylon or why people left LA and also shares personal experiences that would seem hard to make up unless she experienced them.
5. 5 out of 15