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Let Me Stand Alone: The Journals of Rachel Corrie
One young woman’s voice―intense and poetic―grapples with universal ideas as it chronicles a personal journey cut short. How do we find our way in the world? How do our actions affect others? What do we owe the rest of humanity? These are the timeless questions so eloquently posed by Rachel Corrie, a young American activist killed on March 16, 2003, as she tried to block the demolition of a Palestinian family’s home in the Gaza Strip. She was twenty-three years old. Let Me Stand Alone reveals Corrie’s striking gifts as a poet and writer while telling her story in her own words, from her earliest reflections to her final e-mails. Her writing brings to life all that it means to come of age―a dawning sense of self, a thirst for one’s own ideals, and an evolving connection to others, near and far. Corrie writes about the looming issues of her time as well as the ordinary angst of an American teen, all with breathtaking passion, compassion, insight, and humor. Her writing reverberates with conviction and echoes her long-held belief in the oneness of humanity: “We have got to understand that they dream our dreams, and we dream theirs.”
336 pages, Hardcover
First published March 3, 2008
About the author
Rachel Corrie
8 books32 followersEarly life
Corrie was born on April 10, 1979, and raised in Olympia, Washington, United States. She was the youngest of the three children of Craig Corrie, an insurance executive, and Cindy Corrie. Cindy describes their family as "average Americans—politically liberal, economically conservative, middle class".[5][6][7]
After graduating from Capital High School, Corrie went on to attend The Evergreen State College (TESC), also in Olympia, where she took a number of arts courses. She took one year off from her studies to work as a volunteer in the Washington State Conservation Corps; other volunteer work included making weekly visits to patients with mental disorders for three years.[7] In her senior year, she proposed an independent-study program in which she would travel to Gaza, join protesters from the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), and initiate a "sister city" project between Olympia and Rafah.[8] Before leaving, she also organized a pen-pal program between kids in Olympia and Rafah.[9]
[edit]Activities in the West Bank and Gaza
See also: House demolition in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict and Gaza Strip smuggling tunnels
After flying to Israel on January 22, 2003, Corrie underwent a two-day training course at ISM West Bank headquarters, before heading to Rafah to participate in ISM demonstrations.[6][8] During her training, Corrie studied tactics of direct action. Basic rules about avoiding harm were given, which a later article on the Corrie incident summarized as: "Wear fluorescent jackets. Don't run. Don't frighten the army. Try to communicate by megaphone. Make your presence known."[8] On January 27, 2003, Corrie and William Hewitt (also from Olympia), traveled to the Erez checkpoint and entered the Gaza Strip.[8]
Corrie with Israeli bulldozers in background
While in Rafah, Corrie acted as a human shield in an attempt to impede house demolitions carried out by the IDF using armored bulldozers.[4] On Corrie's first night there, she and two other ISM members set up camp inside Block J, often a target for Israeli gunfire. Israeli troops fired bullets over their tent and at the ground a few feet away. Deciding that their presence was provoking the Israeli soldiers, not deterring them, Corrie and her colleagues hurriedly dismantled their tent and left the area.[8]
Qishta, a Palestinian who worked as an interpreter, noted that: "Late January and February was a very crazy time. There were house demolitions taking place all over the border strip and the activists had no time to do anything else."[8] Qishta also stated of the ISM activists: "They were not only brave; they were crazy."[8] The confrontations were not without harm to the activists; a British participant was wounded by shrapnel.[8]
Palestinian militants expressed concern that the "internationals" staying in tents between the Israeli watchtowers and the residential neighborhoods would get caught in crossfire, while other residents were concerned that the young activists might be spies. Corrie worked hard to overcome this suspicion, learning a few words of Arabic, and participating in a mock trial denouncing the "crimes of the Bush Administration."[8] With time, the ISM members were taken into Palestinian family homes, and provided with meals and beds. Even so, in the days before Corrie's death, a letter gained wide circulation in Rafah, casting suspicion again on the ISM members. "Who are they? Why are they here? Who asked them to come here?" it asked.[8] The letter caused the activists to be preoccupied and frustrated, and on the morning of Corrie's death they planned ways to counteract its effects. According to one activist, "We all had a feeling that our role was too passive. We talked about how to engage the Israeli military."[8]
On March 14, 2003, during an interview with the Middle East Broadcasting network, Corrie said:
"I feel like I'm witnessing the systematic destruction of a people's ability to survive ... Sometimes I sit dow
Corrie was born on April 10, 1979, and raised in Olympia, Washington, United States. She was the youngest of the three children of Craig Corrie, an insurance executive, and Cindy Corrie. Cindy describes their family as "average Americans—politically liberal, economically conservative, middle class".[5][6][7]
After graduating from Capital High School, Corrie went on to attend The Evergreen State College (TESC), also in Olympia, where she took a number of arts courses. She took one year off from her studies to work as a volunteer in the Washington State Conservation Corps; other volunteer work included making weekly visits to patients with mental disorders for three years.[7] In her senior year, she proposed an independent-study program in which she would travel to Gaza, join protesters from the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), and initiate a "sister city" project between Olympia and Rafah.[8] Before leaving, she also organized a pen-pal program between kids in Olympia and Rafah.[9]
[edit]Activities in the West Bank and Gaza
See also: House demolition in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict and Gaza Strip smuggling tunnels
After flying to Israel on January 22, 2003, Corrie underwent a two-day training course at ISM West Bank headquarters, before heading to Rafah to participate in ISM demonstrations.[6][8] During her training, Corrie studied tactics of direct action. Basic rules about avoiding harm were given, which a later article on the Corrie incident summarized as: "Wear fluorescent jackets. Don't run. Don't frighten the army. Try to communicate by megaphone. Make your presence known."[8] On January 27, 2003, Corrie and William Hewitt (also from Olympia), traveled to the Erez checkpoint and entered the Gaza Strip.[8]
Corrie with Israeli bulldozers in background
While in Rafah, Corrie acted as a human shield in an attempt to impede house demolitions carried out by the IDF using armored bulldozers.[4] On Corrie's first night there, she and two other ISM members set up camp inside Block J, often a target for Israeli gunfire. Israeli troops fired bullets over their tent and at the ground a few feet away. Deciding that their presence was provoking the Israeli soldiers, not deterring them, Corrie and her colleagues hurriedly dismantled their tent and left the area.[8]
Qishta, a Palestinian who worked as an interpreter, noted that: "Late January and February was a very crazy time. There were house demolitions taking place all over the border strip and the activists had no time to do anything else."[8] Qishta also stated of the ISM activists: "They were not only brave; they were crazy."[8] The confrontations were not without harm to the activists; a British participant was wounded by shrapnel.[8]
Palestinian militants expressed concern that the "internationals" staying in tents between the Israeli watchtowers and the residential neighborhoods would get caught in crossfire, while other residents were concerned that the young activists might be spies. Corrie worked hard to overcome this suspicion, learning a few words of Arabic, and participating in a mock trial denouncing the "crimes of the Bush Administration."[8] With time, the ISM members were taken into Palestinian family homes, and provided with meals and beds. Even so, in the days before Corrie's death, a letter gained wide circulation in Rafah, casting suspicion again on the ISM members. "Who are they? Why are they here? Who asked them to come here?" it asked.[8] The letter caused the activists to be preoccupied and frustrated, and on the morning of Corrie's death they planned ways to counteract its effects. According to one activist, "We all had a feeling that our role was too passive. We talked about how to engage the Israeli military."[8]
On March 14, 2003, during an interview with the Middle East Broadcasting network, Corrie said:
"I feel like I'm witnessing the systematic destruction of a people's ability to survive ... Sometimes I sit dow
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October 21, 2018
On March 16 2003, Rachel Corrie, a 23-year-old American peace activist, was killed by an Israeli bulldozer while attempting to protect a Palestinian house in Gaza. The exact circumstances are disputed. The Israeli Defense Forces have claimed that the driver did not see her. Friends of Corrie who were present claimed that he must have done. Either way, it would be easy for Corrie to be forever defined by her death. I wonder if her parents put Let Me Stand Alone together at least in part to reclaim her identity as someone who lived as well as died. This collection of her writings, notes, emails and other fragments does just that.
Corrie was born in 1979 and bought up in Olympia, Washington State, close to Puget Sound. The earliest entries in this book are from when she was about 10 (her parents can’t always date them precisely). She clearly loved to write from an early age, and some of her poetry is charming. A poem called Wind, written before she was 11, shows real talent.
As she gets older her poetry does get stranger, and less easy to understand. So do some of the prose pieces that she writes about her surroundings, and about deaths in the family. But there are also glimpses of a normal girl growing up; aged about 14, she describes going to a dance: “The good thing about dances is the darkness. They aren’t a showcase for fashion like the halls, and I can forget this body I loathe.” With this piece is a poignant little sketch of a tall thin girl clutching a handbag and saying tentatively, “I’ve come for the party?” An arrow points to her legs with the words, “Stupid pants”.
From early on she seems to have had a strong, idealistic sense of right and wrong. Aged about 12: “Dear Soldier, I guess I don’t really understand the world, because I don’t see …Why people can’t make compromises. Why peace is still a vision …I must be ignorant, because I believe that it’s unnecessary for forty thousand children to die every day. I know I am just a little sixth grader who writes poetry and worries about grades and makeup, but I worry about bigger things.”
In early 1995 Corrie, then nearly 16, travelled to Sakhalin in Russia’s Far East as an exchange student and was profoundly impressed by the experience. Quite normal things – coal dust in the snow, drinking tea – became very vivid memories, as did the journey via Anchorage and Magadan; she had not left the USA before. From then on she became even more idealistic, and disenchanted with the American way of life. Three years later, by her own account, she bursts into tears in a supermarket in the US because she is surrounded by “every variety of dead cow you could ever want” and cannot rid herself of a strange image of people dying in Moscow because the heating pipes have burst and they fall into the water. Meanwhile Corrie does shifts as a social worker and relief-provider for carers, and advisor to the mentally ill.
It would be easy to get the impression, from this, that Corrie was someone who needed to get a life of her own as well as worrying about other people’s. But she had one. She writes with great warmth about her long-term boyfriend, with whom she eventually broke up, but who remained close to her until her death. She is also delighted by the details of the world around her, and often writes of the salmon that spawn in the local rivers, about water and sunshine, and about people seen on a bus, landscapes, the town at night. Sometimes, when the mood takes her, she can be pleasantly mad. In a piece written sometime after she was 18 (again, her parents can’t date it exactly), she writes that she wants to see “people in tutus. Cops wearing sombreros. Stockbrokers with horned Viking hats. Priests with panties on their heads. In the world I’m building …Football players get paid in hamburgers, senators get paid in scalps, first ladies carry handcuffs and bullwhips, and presidents wear metal collars. Hella big metal collars with hella tight leashes. And you get money for counseling the dandelions.”
Neither is Corrie always so sure of herself. In a long plain-verse poem written when she was 23, she describes taking patients to Dairy Queen and having to admonish them for their behaviour:
And he cried some more
And called me a hairy little bitch sabotaging his ice cream day
So I refocused him
On his own anxiety
…and I said I hear that you’re feeling angry
But you’ll have to use appropriate social skills and language
Or there won’t be any more Dairy Queen
…asked me just exactly what I was threatening to do to Dairy Queen
You power-drunk little
Overeducated slut
Two months later, in late January 2003, Corrie arrived in Gaza, encouraged by a fellow-activist to join the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), a group calling for peaceful non-violent protest against Israeli action that, at that time, included the destruction of Palestinian houses on the borders of Gaza; the Israeli Defense Forces stated that this was to prevent smuggling. She arrived in late January. Her emails and notes ooze anger over what was happening in Gaza, and are a vivid depiction of the fear and uncertainty confronting its people. Exactly what she felt about Israel, and the extent to which she tried to understand Israeli perceptions of the conflict, isn’t clear from her writings. However, in a long letter to her mother dated February 27 2003, she says:
Speaking of words – I absolutely abhor the use of polarities like ‘good’ and ‘evil’ – especially when applied to human beings. I think these words are the enemy of critical thinking. They are an escape from finding solutions and are an incitement to further violence.
Less than three weeks later Corrie stood in front of a bulldozer that was attempting to destroy the house of a Palestinian pharmacist and his brother; she knew the family. The bulldozer killed her. As stated earlier, exactly how or why is disputed. Meanwhile some people will always see her as a martyr, while others will feel strongly that it was not her quarrel and that she should not have been there. What does seem clear from this book is that she was not seeking martyrdom in any way; in fact, in her last emails, she was wondering what to do when she left Gaza. Neither does she seem to have been a fanatic; the Dairy Queen verses suggest a young woman questioning her own motives and character. What she does have, though, is that deep sense of right and wrong, and a feeling that she must act where she sees things that are wrong; and I wonder how many older people read this book and sense a gentle reproach from their younger selves.
There are a few videos of Corrie on the web, including one of an interview with her in Gaza very shortly before her death. But if you’ve read Let Me Stand Alone, one is particularly hard to watch. It seems to have been taken when she was 10, and attended an event to support publication of UNICEF’s State of the World’s Children. She is making a plea on behalf of children worldwide, but she is too far from the microphone. An adult puts her hands on Corrie’s shoulders and gently moves her in front of the mic.
This would be about the time she wrote a poem called For Gram with love:
Over a fence
by an old rusty rail
came the whispery
twitch of a cream-colored tail.
Over the fence
By a big haystack
Came the pat of a paw
Soft and black.
Over the fence
In the tallest grass
Came the twitch of a whisker
Shiny as glass.
Corrie was born in 1979 and bought up in Olympia, Washington State, close to Puget Sound. The earliest entries in this book are from when she was about 10 (her parents can’t always date them precisely). She clearly loved to write from an early age, and some of her poetry is charming. A poem called Wind, written before she was 11, shows real talent.
As she gets older her poetry does get stranger, and less easy to understand. So do some of the prose pieces that she writes about her surroundings, and about deaths in the family. But there are also glimpses of a normal girl growing up; aged about 14, she describes going to a dance: “The good thing about dances is the darkness. They aren’t a showcase for fashion like the halls, and I can forget this body I loathe.” With this piece is a poignant little sketch of a tall thin girl clutching a handbag and saying tentatively, “I’ve come for the party?” An arrow points to her legs with the words, “Stupid pants”.
From early on she seems to have had a strong, idealistic sense of right and wrong. Aged about 12: “Dear Soldier, I guess I don’t really understand the world, because I don’t see …Why people can’t make compromises. Why peace is still a vision …I must be ignorant, because I believe that it’s unnecessary for forty thousand children to die every day. I know I am just a little sixth grader who writes poetry and worries about grades and makeup, but I worry about bigger things.”
In early 1995 Corrie, then nearly 16, travelled to Sakhalin in Russia’s Far East as an exchange student and was profoundly impressed by the experience. Quite normal things – coal dust in the snow, drinking tea – became very vivid memories, as did the journey via Anchorage and Magadan; she had not left the USA before. From then on she became even more idealistic, and disenchanted with the American way of life. Three years later, by her own account, she bursts into tears in a supermarket in the US because she is surrounded by “every variety of dead cow you could ever want” and cannot rid herself of a strange image of people dying in Moscow because the heating pipes have burst and they fall into the water. Meanwhile Corrie does shifts as a social worker and relief-provider for carers, and advisor to the mentally ill.
It would be easy to get the impression, from this, that Corrie was someone who needed to get a life of her own as well as worrying about other people’s. But she had one. She writes with great warmth about her long-term boyfriend, with whom she eventually broke up, but who remained close to her until her death. She is also delighted by the details of the world around her, and often writes of the salmon that spawn in the local rivers, about water and sunshine, and about people seen on a bus, landscapes, the town at night. Sometimes, when the mood takes her, she can be pleasantly mad. In a piece written sometime after she was 18 (again, her parents can’t date it exactly), she writes that she wants to see “people in tutus. Cops wearing sombreros. Stockbrokers with horned Viking hats. Priests with panties on their heads. In the world I’m building …Football players get paid in hamburgers, senators get paid in scalps, first ladies carry handcuffs and bullwhips, and presidents wear metal collars. Hella big metal collars with hella tight leashes. And you get money for counseling the dandelions.”
Neither is Corrie always so sure of herself. In a long plain-verse poem written when she was 23, she describes taking patients to Dairy Queen and having to admonish them for their behaviour:
And he cried some more
And called me a hairy little bitch sabotaging his ice cream day
So I refocused him
On his own anxiety
…and I said I hear that you’re feeling angry
But you’ll have to use appropriate social skills and language
Or there won’t be any more Dairy Queen
…asked me just exactly what I was threatening to do to Dairy Queen
You power-drunk little
Overeducated slut
Two months later, in late January 2003, Corrie arrived in Gaza, encouraged by a fellow-activist to join the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), a group calling for peaceful non-violent protest against Israeli action that, at that time, included the destruction of Palestinian houses on the borders of Gaza; the Israeli Defense Forces stated that this was to prevent smuggling. She arrived in late January. Her emails and notes ooze anger over what was happening in Gaza, and are a vivid depiction of the fear and uncertainty confronting its people. Exactly what she felt about Israel, and the extent to which she tried to understand Israeli perceptions of the conflict, isn’t clear from her writings. However, in a long letter to her mother dated February 27 2003, she says:
Speaking of words – I absolutely abhor the use of polarities like ‘good’ and ‘evil’ – especially when applied to human beings. I think these words are the enemy of critical thinking. They are an escape from finding solutions and are an incitement to further violence.
Less than three weeks later Corrie stood in front of a bulldozer that was attempting to destroy the house of a Palestinian pharmacist and his brother; she knew the family. The bulldozer killed her. As stated earlier, exactly how or why is disputed. Meanwhile some people will always see her as a martyr, while others will feel strongly that it was not her quarrel and that she should not have been there. What does seem clear from this book is that she was not seeking martyrdom in any way; in fact, in her last emails, she was wondering what to do when she left Gaza. Neither does she seem to have been a fanatic; the Dairy Queen verses suggest a young woman questioning her own motives and character. What she does have, though, is that deep sense of right and wrong, and a feeling that she must act where she sees things that are wrong; and I wonder how many older people read this book and sense a gentle reproach from their younger selves.
There are a few videos of Corrie on the web, including one of an interview with her in Gaza very shortly before her death. But if you’ve read Let Me Stand Alone, one is particularly hard to watch. It seems to have been taken when she was 10, and attended an event to support publication of UNICEF’s State of the World’s Children. She is making a plea on behalf of children worldwide, but she is too far from the microphone. An adult puts her hands on Corrie’s shoulders and gently moves her in front of the mic.
This would be about the time she wrote a poem called For Gram with love:
Over a fence
by an old rusty rail
came the whispery
twitch of a cream-colored tail.
Over the fence
By a big haystack
Came the pat of a paw
Soft and black.
Over the fence
In the tallest grass
Came the twitch of a whisker
Shiny as glass.
December 10, 2023
there is something so(ooo) overwhelming and gut-wrenching about reading someone's final diary entries and correspondence planning for their future only days before their death (she writes her dad 4 days before the IOF kills her: "let me know if you have any ideas about what I should do with the rest of my life" 🔪❤️) only about the last 100 pages concern Palestine and the Middle East but her observations are so astute and I have repeated many of them to myself over and over in the past 2 months. there is also something so sweet and special about a 6th grader writing in her journal about world hunger and operation desert storm, my heart breaks. there's not much else to say except she was right! the struggle continues & in all my annoying earnestness she is a hero to me :)
Want to read
March 29, 2018:(
March 21, 2008
The heart-wrenching journals, letters and poems of Rachel Corrie, the most courageous American of the new century. Her voice in this volume speaks out in an immortal call for justice, a voice that can't be silenced by the blade of any bulldozer. Perhaps one day soon her parents, Craig and Cindy, will get a measure of justice for the unspeakable crime done to their daughter. A beautiful and bittersweet volume.
April 2, 2023
I am not sure anyone can read this book and not understand that it is pure art.
Rachel Corrie is what I call a "true writer": someone whose talent is drawn from a deep well of innate conviction, both about writing and about life.
Evidence of Rachel's talent is present throughout the chronology of her life. I gasped when, at age 10, Rachel told a family member who'd inquired about her career aspirations, "I AM a poet."
Rachel is braver than I. Rachel doesn't stop at the task of being a good writer. Being a good writer is simply the necessary first step in the rest of her mission. It's foundational to the actionable goal of helping others. When I think about the tragedy of her death, it is hard to imagine Rachel NOT leaving Olympia to find the place where she determined the most vulnerable people lived.
Her father said the same thing in an interview. And Rachel said it herself, multiple times, but most succinctly in a 1998 letter to her mom:
"I have to do things that scare you. I'm sorry I scare you. I hope I'm not ugly in your eyes. But I want to write and I want to see. And what would I write about if I only stayed within the doll's house, the flower-world I grew up in? What kind of a writer would I be? What kind of seer would I be, if I stayed in the prism I grew up in?"
Rachel Corrie is what I call a "true writer": someone whose talent is drawn from a deep well of innate conviction, both about writing and about life.
Evidence of Rachel's talent is present throughout the chronology of her life. I gasped when, at age 10, Rachel told a family member who'd inquired about her career aspirations, "I AM a poet."
Rachel is braver than I. Rachel doesn't stop at the task of being a good writer. Being a good writer is simply the necessary first step in the rest of her mission. It's foundational to the actionable goal of helping others. When I think about the tragedy of her death, it is hard to imagine Rachel NOT leaving Olympia to find the place where she determined the most vulnerable people lived.
Her father said the same thing in an interview. And Rachel said it herself, multiple times, but most succinctly in a 1998 letter to her mom:
"I have to do things that scare you. I'm sorry I scare you. I hope I'm not ugly in your eyes. But I want to write and I want to see. And what would I write about if I only stayed within the doll's house, the flower-world I grew up in? What kind of a writer would I be? What kind of seer would I be, if I stayed in the prism I grew up in?"
March 2, 2018
Very powerful. It's a real shame that she was killed, as she would have made an amazing writer. She's definitely one of the most inspirational women I've read about, and she definitely makes me question my own achievements (I'm the same age she was when she died, and am stuck inside my room finishing my literature and creative writing degree). Obviously the ethics of this book can be questioned, as journals are such a personal thing. But overall, it's definitely a book people should read.
November 29, 2023
corrie was a brilliant person and writer, and I feel honoured to have been able to read her work. the earlier work in this collection was difficult to appreciate, but as I became more familiar with her voice, I was completely taken. the first piece on Colin completely destroyed me. well worth a read.
August 16, 2015
I listened to this audiobook mostly while I was biking with my dog, so now I find that I "miss" Rachel Corrie when I go biking with a different audiobook. This makes it even more heartbreaking that my "missing" this book is only the most miniscule fraction of what her family and friends felt when she died suddenly and senselessly while doing activist work in Palestine.
I love reading published journals, no matter the subject matter or the author, meaning that I'll read the diaries of "famous people" who I don't really know for their work beyond their diaries. These published journals seem to be a fitting tribute to Rachel Corrie's life and her development as an activist, although they are a somewhat disjointed collection of her poetry, diary entries, letters, and essays, many of which have only the vaguest of dates attached to them. Like many published journals, people and events are mentioned without any context, so you just have to accept that, despite being drawn into some of Rachel's most intimate thoughts and observations, you remain an outsider. There is no question that even as a teenager Rachel was a very talented writer, and her writer's voice develops as she grows. Her essay about her lover Colin is so beautiful and gives so much context to their relationship that I liked being "in the know" whenever Colin was mentioned in passing in later entries.
It's true that where this journal really shines is in the writing Rachel does from Palestine. I felt like I got a better idea of what the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is "really" like through Rachel's writing than through any newscast, article, or conversation I have ever come across. Her passion for her work really comes through as well, her conviction seeming to grow with each entry until it is cut short in the last entry before her death, followed by a single sentence memorializing the date and circumstances of her death.
The book essentially ends there, which felt too abrupt to me. After spending "years" of Rachel's life with her, I wanted to know, via an afterward or an editor's note, what happened next. I found on Wikipedia that Rachel's family brought several lawsuits against those in Israel who investigated her death, challenging the conclusion that it was an "accident" (she was run over by a bulldozer that was "clearing" a Palestinian neighborhood, an action she had been frequently protesting.) Although her father gives a prelude to the journals that details her death, this information is less resonant before we have gotten to "know" her through her writing, and I wish more of this sort of thing would have been included at the end, to help ease the reader out of the book and to give some opportunity for further reflection. But of course, what I really wish is that Rachel's story hadn't ended the way it did, period.
I love reading published journals, no matter the subject matter or the author, meaning that I'll read the diaries of "famous people" who I don't really know for their work beyond their diaries. These published journals seem to be a fitting tribute to Rachel Corrie's life and her development as an activist, although they are a somewhat disjointed collection of her poetry, diary entries, letters, and essays, many of which have only the vaguest of dates attached to them. Like many published journals, people and events are mentioned without any context, so you just have to accept that, despite being drawn into some of Rachel's most intimate thoughts and observations, you remain an outsider. There is no question that even as a teenager Rachel was a very talented writer, and her writer's voice develops as she grows. Her essay about her lover Colin is so beautiful and gives so much context to their relationship that I liked being "in the know" whenever Colin was mentioned in passing in later entries.
It's true that where this journal really shines is in the writing Rachel does from Palestine. I felt like I got a better idea of what the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is "really" like through Rachel's writing than through any newscast, article, or conversation I have ever come across. Her passion for her work really comes through as well, her conviction seeming to grow with each entry until it is cut short in the last entry before her death, followed by a single sentence memorializing the date and circumstances of her death.
The book essentially ends there, which felt too abrupt to me. After spending "years" of Rachel's life with her, I wanted to know, via an afterward or an editor's note, what happened next. I found on Wikipedia that Rachel's family brought several lawsuits against those in Israel who investigated her death, challenging the conclusion that it was an "accident" (she was run over by a bulldozer that was "clearing" a Palestinian neighborhood, an action she had been frequently protesting.) Although her father gives a prelude to the journals that details her death, this information is less resonant before we have gotten to "know" her through her writing, and I wish more of this sort of thing would have been included at the end, to help ease the reader out of the book and to give some opportunity for further reflection. But of course, what I really wish is that Rachel's story hadn't ended the way it did, period.
Read
March 22, 2024Don't really feel comfortable rating a collection of writings dating back to when the author was a tween. It was a hard read. I cried a ton. I was born within a few months of Rachel, so her worldview was very relatable & broke my heart that she only made it to 23. She had a huge heart & would have continued being a voice for the voiceless. I hate that it took a very visible genocide to introduce me to her.
July 19, 2008
For those who don't know her story, Corrie was a college student from Olympia, Washington who joined a group called the International Solidarity Movement and worked with other volunteers as human shields in Palestine, protecting civilian homes and water wells. Then she got ran over twice by a bulldozer driven by the Israeli military. This story was minimally reported in the U.S. media; instead they were focusing on the so-called dual-sided coin of Lyndie England (the poster girl for jovial torture practices on "enemy combatants" who haven't been convicted of anything) and Jessica Lynch (the "heroic" private who actually didn't do shit, her vehicle got shot up and some other guy actually saved her and she took the credit and allowed herself to be paraded around as some sort of symbol of the glorious triumph of the American spirit, or some such crap. Iraqi hospital workers tried to release her to the U.S. at a checkpoint, but they kept getting shot at by the army.) Anyway, of those three, Corrie is the only one I would have as a myspace friend. Unfortunately, the book, which is a collection of various writings found and put together by her family, seems more like an attempt by them at closure. It's not very good or interesting, a lot of stuff is obviously unfinished, there's a lot of bad adolescent poetry, and it doesn't deal with her time in Palestine until near the end, which is mainly some academic newsletters she had published. I would be kind of pissed if my family put all that out after I had died and couldn't edit it. Michael Moore dedicated "Dude, Where's My Country?" to her, writing, "Will I ever have her courage? Will I let her death be in vain?"
July 11, 2011
Rachel Corrie was truly a remarkable woman. To stand up for the Palestinians when others turned their backs. She died for the cause and will never be forgotten.
October 8, 2009
i found this book really hard to read, for two reasons: 1) it's really hard to read a book full of writing by someone who died in such a horrible manner (rachel was a young american activist who got involved with the international solidarity movement & was helping to protect homes in palestine when she was crushed to death by an israeli bulldozer at the age of 23), especially once she actually gets to palestine & is writing all kinds of stuff about how weird it is that american privilege enables her to talk away whenever she wants, & maybe she'll hang out in sweden before she goes home, etc etc, & 2) it's a journal/collection of personal writings written by someone before the age of 23. i think back on the journals i was keeping when i was a tween/teen/young adult & i cringe to imagine any of them published & alan rickman making a play out of them. i concede that in some ways, rachel's journals are a lot more artfully written than mine. she was passionate about stopping war & environmental destruction from a young age, & while i was conscious of those issues when i was young, they probably got edged out of my journals in favor of complaining about my friends & describing glancing incidents with crushes.
rachel's family compiled this book after her death, drawing from e-mails she sent them from palestine, journals, letters from rachel's friends, & other sources for rachel's personal writing. other reviewers have said that the book has a sense of being an act of closure for the family, as opposed to a coherent collection of rachel's writing & political development, & i would agree. i have read a lot of published journals, & of course many of them don't have a narrative thread from cover to cover, but was it necessary to include a list of scrabble scores from games rachel played with her boyfriend? or the incredibly long, weird story about her boyfriend's allergy to bees? i don't know.
bottom line: i had a hard time getting into this, but i kind of expected that i would when i picked it up, so...mea culpa, i guess.
rachel's family compiled this book after her death, drawing from e-mails she sent them from palestine, journals, letters from rachel's friends, & other sources for rachel's personal writing. other reviewers have said that the book has a sense of being an act of closure for the family, as opposed to a coherent collection of rachel's writing & political development, & i would agree. i have read a lot of published journals, & of course many of them don't have a narrative thread from cover to cover, but was it necessary to include a list of scrabble scores from games rachel played with her boyfriend? or the incredibly long, weird story about her boyfriend's allergy to bees? i don't know.
bottom line: i had a hard time getting into this, but i kind of expected that i would when i picked it up, so...mea culpa, i guess.
August 12, 2010
Beautiful. Just gorgeous.
"If the words I use buzz away from my lips meaninglessly, then we'll let them hang in the air for a while. We'll let those silly words sit and make fools of themselves until other words come and crowd around them.
I need to flutter and hover and look at the diamond ripples through six swirled insect eyes. Just don't touch me for a moment. let me sit and stare at everything though my own eyes for a while. Let me dance in the lily petals and skim the trembling water and buzz like useless words in the air.
Do you understand? Let me lie alone my back in tall grass and see the sun and the water droplets on the branches and the red tree trunks through my own eyes. Let me color them and build them with my own words. Lonely, strong words. Let me stand alone at the edge of the earth and look at it honestly, alone."
Beautiful chronicle of a developing human through her emerging consciousness and on taking account of her last days in Gaza as she was moved, inspired, and disturbed by what she witnessed there. Also it includes an amazing number of her poems written starting at around 10 years old and incredibly brilliant, at any age, but especially when you consider how young she was.
"If the words I use buzz away from my lips meaninglessly, then we'll let them hang in the air for a while. We'll let those silly words sit and make fools of themselves until other words come and crowd around them.
I need to flutter and hover and look at the diamond ripples through six swirled insect eyes. Just don't touch me for a moment. let me sit and stare at everything though my own eyes for a while. Let me dance in the lily petals and skim the trembling water and buzz like useless words in the air.
Do you understand? Let me lie alone my back in tall grass and see the sun and the water droplets on the branches and the red tree trunks through my own eyes. Let me color them and build them with my own words. Lonely, strong words. Let me stand alone at the edge of the earth and look at it honestly, alone."
Beautiful chronicle of a developing human through her emerging consciousness and on taking account of her last days in Gaza as she was moved, inspired, and disturbed by what she witnessed there. Also it includes an amazing number of her poems written starting at around 10 years old and incredibly brilliant, at any age, but especially when you consider how young she was.
August 20, 2011
Let Me Stand Alone is a powerful first-hand account of Rachel Corrie, a young American activist who questioned her own privilege and was subsequently killed in 2003 by the Israeli military during an international non-violent protest against the violent transfer of Palestinian civilians out of Gaza. It is told through a collection of Rachel's poetry, letters, and journal entries as compiled and edited by her family after her death. While it doesn't always flow (some entries seem redundant or out of place), the result paints a powerful portrait of a whole person. I was surprised that it is not all about her activism; a full two-thirds of the book details her childhood and adolescence, which helps flesh out the intricacies of her experience and thought process that allowed her to grow into the young woman she eventually became. And we come to know that young woman in all her idealistic passion, her sense of justice, her love of people, and her contradictions and fears. When reading, you get a deep sense of tragedy for Rachel's fate and the corruption that it resulted from, and a sense that she had a hesitant prescience of her own inevitable death. This is a must-read, especially for Westerners who casually accept Western media accounts of Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
June 30, 2013
Rachel Corrie was a young American human rights activist who volunteered to work for one of the peace movement organisations in Palestine. She was killed at the age of 23 when an Israeli bulldozer refused to stop as she stood in front of a home which was about to be demolished. Her selfless act and commitment to human rights until the end, have inspired and educated many about the ongoing plight of the Palestinians under Israeli occupation.
Let Me Stand Alone is a collection of Rachel's childhood and young adult memoirs. They capture her coming-of-age moments, as she writes about her first love woes, her hopes and dreams, her plans for the future, and everything else every normal teenage girl goes through. Her writing and poetry are eloquent, and from a very early age, Rachel's awareness about current affairs and how people are treated by others is strongly evident and demonstrated throughout. It's one of those books that you read and don't want to finish, because you know how the story ends.
Let Me Stand Alone is a collection of Rachel's childhood and young adult memoirs. They capture her coming-of-age moments, as she writes about her first love woes, her hopes and dreams, her plans for the future, and everything else every normal teenage girl goes through. Her writing and poetry are eloquent, and from a very early age, Rachel's awareness about current affairs and how people are treated by others is strongly evident and demonstrated throughout. It's one of those books that you read and don't want to finish, because you know how the story ends.
March 15, 2015
This book is like a memoir in journal style written by Rachel via her poems, letters, email, etc. that were collected after her way-too-early death. First, we meet Rachel when she is young and growing up in Olympia, WA. She ends up joining volunteer human rights activists and heads to Rafah, in occupied Gaza. It is here where her well written words become even more powerful as she becomes more involved as an activist and as she observes tremendous human suffering. Knowing what was to happen to her, it was often heart-wrenching and painful it listen - I listened to the audio edition of this book and it was tremendously well done. Although not an easy story to hear (or read), Rachel's writing is great and her thoughts passionate and still right on target with today's global issues.
August 5, 2014
It seems crass to give it a bad review, but Rachel Corrie seems to have a very frightening zealotry, even as a young child. She seems almost frightening, with a zeal that comes across as lacking innocence. She seems consumed with the world's problems to an unhealthy degree and quotes come across as very strange.
"Death smells like homemade apple sauce as it cooks on the stove. It is not the strangling sense of illness. It is not fear. It is freedom."
Scary.
Still, I wish she would have lived and gotten help.
"Death smells like homemade apple sauce as it cooks on the stove. It is not the strangling sense of illness. It is not fear. It is freedom."
Scary.
Still, I wish she would have lived and gotten help.
April 9, 2021
This book contains a collection of journal entries, poems and drawings by Rachel Corrie, posthumously gathered by her parents, to give readers a glimpse of Rachel's life, her background and above all her generous human spirit, astute political awareness and her determination to walk and promote a path of peace.
It's as if she had a premonition about how her life would end when she writes, aged thirteen, that she's afraid of 'falling, tumbling and rolling down'. There are more references to these fears and a recurring dream throughout her journal entries.
The book ends with her final emails, letters and reports from Gaza, where she was killed aged twenty three by an Israeli driven bulldozer as she tried to peacefully protest against the demolition of a Palestinian family's home in the Gaza Strip.
She was a gifted artist, writer and storyteller and a great humanitarian whose life was cut dramatically short. I am grateful to learn a bit more about her life through this book and hope that her dreams for peaceful co-existence in our world will one day come true.
It's as if she had a premonition about how her life would end when she writes, aged thirteen, that she's afraid of 'falling, tumbling and rolling down'. There are more references to these fears and a recurring dream throughout her journal entries.
The book ends with her final emails, letters and reports from Gaza, where she was killed aged twenty three by an Israeli driven bulldozer as she tried to peacefully protest against the demolition of a Palestinian family's home in the Gaza Strip.
She was a gifted artist, writer and storyteller and a great humanitarian whose life was cut dramatically short. I am grateful to learn a bit more about her life through this book and hope that her dreams for peaceful co-existence in our world will one day come true.
November 10, 2022
I might be biased with my rating, because I’m Palestinian, I’m a Gazan who’ve been living in diaspora, and I’m in awe of this beautiful soul called Rachel Corrie. Rachel was an American activist who was killed by the Israeli apartheid regime on the 16th of March, 2003. She was crushed to death under an armored Caterpillar D-9R bulldozer operated by members of the Israel, occupation, Defense Forces. Rachel was trying to block the demolition of a Palestinian family’s home in Rafah in the Gaza Strip. She was young and full of life and humanity. This is evident in her writings. Through her journal entries I feel her essence and how she lead her life with meaning and purpose. After so many years I’m finally on my way back home to Palestine. I think I couldn’t have chosen a better book to accompany me on the way. Rachel you’re an angel. The world didn’t deserve you.
Rest in peace beautiful soul.
“I must walk with care
as I wander in the wood
that I may crush no flower below my shoes.”
Rachel Corrie, Let Me Stand Alone: The Journals of Rachel Corrie
Rest in peace beautiful soul.
“I must walk with care
as I wander in the wood
that I may crush no flower below my shoes.”
Rachel Corrie, Let Me Stand Alone: The Journals of Rachel Corrie
June 14, 2020
Writing this review is truly hard, I can not and will not be subjective because I feel emotionally influenced by the author. Her wilderness, courage, humanity, consistency with her values and "muchness" left me mesmerized and actually revived "something" in me.
This book is about a true journey of a little girl from Olympia who took her steps in the world and opened her eyes to see beyond things and people .. a teenager who struggled to keep her faith in what she was doing and to survive her inner struggles, a young lady who dressed like a dove and carried a banner and didn't keep silent, a martyr whose words and actions restore our faith in humanity.
In one of her letters to Naela, Rachel says:
"We should be inspired by people like you who show human beings can be kind, brave, generous, beautiful, strong-even in the most difficult of circumstances"
سلامًا طيبًا .. و وردة ..
This book is about a true journey of a little girl from Olympia who took her steps in the world and opened her eyes to see beyond things and people .. a teenager who struggled to keep her faith in what she was doing and to survive her inner struggles, a young lady who dressed like a dove and carried a banner and didn't keep silent, a martyr whose words and actions restore our faith in humanity.
In one of her letters to Naela, Rachel says:
"We should be inspired by people like you who show human beings can be kind, brave, generous, beautiful, strong-even in the most difficult of circumstances"
سلامًا طيبًا .. و وردة ..
July 1, 2021
It is a personal experience entering another's mind. That is what this book allowed its readers to do. In the beginning, the snippets of stories of poems offered context to the life of a young girl finding her place in the world. They introduced us to Rachel in a way similar to how one would get to know one's self, slowly and through time. We experienced her highs and her lows as she navigated her adolescence, then we accompanied her when she found her calling across the sea. And, with that, the narrative changed. No longer was this story about finding one's true self rather about discovering how one woman could impact the world. Rachel Corrie grew into her dreams, and we as readers were gifted a type of sad understanding of what it meant for her to take her journey. She may have died, but her story never ended with the closing of those two covers.
December 10, 2023
I found portions of this book compelling. The introduction her dad wrote, and the ending where she was in Gaza.
Honestly though, a large portion of the middle was completely random and - at times - nonsensical. I didn’t understand the purpose of most of it.
That being said, I still find her story so important and inspirational. And I’m glad I read it.
On March 16, 2003, Rachel Corrie was killed by the Israeli Defense Forces as she stood between a Palestinian home scheduled for demolition - the family still inside their home - and a bulldozer. The IDF ran over her body twice. Despite a number of eyewitnesses, no charges were brought.
“Mother, Is brave part of growing up?”
-Rachel Corrie, age 2
Honestly though, a large portion of the middle was completely random and - at times - nonsensical. I didn’t understand the purpose of most of it.
That being said, I still find her story so important and inspirational. And I’m glad I read it.
On March 16, 2003, Rachel Corrie was killed by the Israeli Defense Forces as she stood between a Palestinian home scheduled for demolition - the family still inside their home - and a bulldozer. The IDF ran over her body twice. Despite a number of eyewitnesses, no charges were brought.
“Mother, Is brave part of growing up?”
-Rachel Corrie, age 2
September 7, 2022
Oh boy do I have some feelings about this one. I found this book in a free box on the side of the road and got excited about it being signed by the authors parents so I took it home. I started reading it when it was the only book in my bag and it immediately drew me in. I really enjoy that it’s a collection of things written in journals because it has inspired my journaling and has given me such an intimate view into someone’s life. I’m a little sad that the injustices in the book are still going on today, but it did help me feel more connected to the author. Overall I think the universe wanted me to read this book and I’m really glad I did!
June 16, 2021
I honestly didn't read it completely, and only skipped around until i got to her letters and diary entries from Gaza and her last few months. I would recommend it if you're not familiar with what's happening in occupied Palestine, as it's a first hand testimony of what an ethnic cleansing looks like, when Gaza was not freed yet and its inhabitants getting displaced for the umpteenth time. What is still happening now in the west bank, is what Rachel Corrie wrote about in 2003, and what ended her life.
April 13, 2021
We shouldn’t be reading these journals because Rachel Corrie should still be alive. She didn’t write this for publication and the notes from her earlier life were harder to follow, but her writings from Gaza are revealing of information and stories that are differently hard to read - hard to read but we all should read them. This is an important book for anyone concerned about global human rights!
Read
April 15, 2021I can't bring myself to rate this because who even am I to rate someone's journals, especially if its Rachel Corrie's. I think the journals prior to her trip to Palestine were a bit harder to get through. But, in the sense of a reader taking in everything that made Rachel Rachel. Like her family, first loves, first jobs, life in Olympia..... she was a very sensual, visual writer. so much talent. My heart broke at the last sentence.
November 24, 2022
Rachel’s family has given us this glimpse into her thoughts, fears, hopes and observations. I knew the basics of Rachel's story, but reading her words was powerful and haunting. All Rachel wanted was for one of her press releases from Rafah to be published in her hometown paper. Instead, she has a book so both Rafah and her legacy will stay alive.
Some of the poetry is rough around the edges, some is great. Rachel died for her beliefs. The world is a much poorer place without her.
Some of the poetry is rough around the edges, some is great. Rachel died for her beliefs. The world is a much poorer place without her.
December 23, 2023
An excellent and poignant collection of writing from a bright mind with careening compassion. Rachel was clearly someone who was intentional with much of what she did, and self-reflected like it was an act of love
(maybe because it is, to the world, and those around us, when we make good choices afterwards)
RIP and an interesting read just a shift of a generation back from me, helping me understand my childhood and the politics surrounding it with words and impressions, not just feelings.
(maybe because it is, to the world, and those around us, when we make good choices afterwards)
RIP and an interesting read just a shift of a generation back from me, helping me understand my childhood and the politics surrounding it with words and impressions, not just feelings.
September 4, 2024
I don't often review books but this one was special. I felt so much of myself in these reflective pages of a young person excited about the world and eager to create, slowing catching on to its cruelties while entering adulthood. Rachel speaks to the young artist and activist, witnessing and experiencing devastation but trying desperately to find a place of purpose, urging others to do the same. She acts as a witness to the destruction of human rights and, in doing so, spreads news of the conditions in Palestine during her work in 2003 and still to people reading her words today.
There are many Palestinian accounts that can illuminate experiences of life under occupation in Rafah much more vividly, of course. It is Rachel's fame that attests to the fact that Palestinian lives are undervalued on the global stage. Her account, however, does strike a chord with those who had to slowly realize that ethics of the modern world are not what we were raised to believe; that the power structures in place treat lives as disposable when there is money to be made. And despite all of this, there is still so much resilience and beauty in the people of our planet.
There are many Palestinian accounts that can illuminate experiences of life under occupation in Rafah much more vividly, of course. It is Rachel's fame that attests to the fact that Palestinian lives are undervalued on the global stage. Her account, however, does strike a chord with those who had to slowly realize that ethics of the modern world are not what we were raised to believe; that the power structures in place treat lives as disposable when there is money to be made. And despite all of this, there is still so much resilience and beauty in the people of our planet.
June 24, 2020
A beautiful composition of Rachel's writings. This book gave me so much more insight into Rachel Corrie as I prepared for my show of the script based off this books contents.
She's smart, brave, raw and eloquent. Her stories remind me so much of my own trials in life and it really shows the human side of the girl known for her activism.
She's smart, brave, raw and eloquent. Her stories remind me so much of my own trials in life and it really shows the human side of the girl known for her activism.
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