Even with all the obvious educational scenes encased in convenient dialogue, nothing could get in the way of the superior reading experienced providedEven with all the obvious educational scenes encased in convenient dialogue, nothing could get in the way of the superior reading experienced provided by Decentred Lit's perfectly curated September box that worked in concert with Alyssa Cole's text that charted violent colonialism in the US and the Caribbean from the 15th century to the present day in a New York neighboured targeted for gentrification.
I'll assume all the pointless pedantic natterings about "Is it a thriller???!!!" are a result of being in book box purgatory. Good night.
On a third read, this book holds up like the Rock of Gibraltar. As far as the less enthused responses to this debut go, some pUpdate: December 5, 2021
On a third read, this book holds up like the Rock of Gibraltar. As far as the less enthused responses to this debut go, some people mek sense and some people cyaan read.
Update: June 14, 2020
I didn’t love this book. These family secrets formed, as Miller placed it, “in the complication of roots, in the dirtiness of dirt,” drew too near. But there was true pleasure in experiencing such an intricately constructed, vividly spun debut heavy with substance, however dread. It evoked true admiration for Card’s choice to replicate the silences, the perhaps unfillable gaps, history’s inevitable incompleteness, rather than a more crowd pleasing, sweeping family saga, 500 pages long. And I formed a gut deep connection to these few lines in the macabre, glorious final chapter:
“Norma tried to warn them, to put fear in them, because it was clear that they had none. Norma would say what her mother told her: fear is what keeps little girls alive. What about blood? they asked Norma.”
These Ghosts are Family presents Jamaica as a people, a history, a physical place, an unplottable scape, imagination, and memory.
March 4, 2020:Well, well, well. This may be a novel I respect more than I love but I end the book impressed, thinking of confessions, our understories in nearby bushes, and Nicole Dennis-Benn talking about how we raise our little girls in fear. To which Maisy Card has answered with blood.
At the end the thing that stays with me is the craft. I'd sit for hours to listen to how Mimi Lok decided on what forms and what words to pull from etAt the end the thing that stays with me is the craft. I'd sit for hours to listen to how Mimi Lok decided on what forms and what words to pull from ether these narratives, these characters that pierce and linger. Readers often rate the individual stories or comment that some are obviously better than others. That's a rare thing for me. As is my reaction to most collections, each one here is a vital element, with its own bittersweet, endearing, poignant quality; at thirty pages or two.
It's been a long time since I've so ably seen setting created through character work, whether it's a Chinese woman migrating to England after WWII or a grandmother moving far from Hong Kong Island in search of home. I loved how Lok managed to include and even make me feel the Cantonese in some stories although it's an English text.
I've had such intensely personal moments in some of these stories. Read it and let it echo in you long after you've turned the last page. Eternally grateful to Decentred Lit for giving me this pearl.
This book almost had me! Everything from Martín's first meeting with Zavala to the journey on the Black Road had shifted my rat**spoiler alert** 3.5 ⭐
This book almost had me! Everything from Martín's first meeting with Zavala to the journey on the Black Road had shifted my rating to 3.75, with 4 a distant but visible glimmer. It had me!
But in its conclusion this story ended up being yet another tale about a long suffering young woman protagonist who is made to work work work, whether it's for abusive relatives or haughty but attractive deities, pushed to commit the ultimate sacrifice and demand nothing in return because she's such a good person. "I just want everyone to live ...more
If you are a plot oriented reader this title may not be for you based on some reviews. If character, woman and girlhood, and friendship and hope are yIf you are a plot oriented reader this title may not be for you based on some reviews. If character, woman and girlhood, and friendship and hope are your interests read this beautifully tender story set in a squatter settlement in Bangalore, India.
Told in three parts, organised along a historical timeline familiar to history students, Subramanian centres exactly those persons rarely mentioned in grand national and regional narratives, rarely figured into what makes a culture a "civilization". The "we" narrator is a group of 5 girls--Joy, Rukshana, Padma, Banu, Deepa--who brings each into focus as well as their mothers and grandmothers, detailing their loves, dreams, ambitions, sorrows and challenges.
While some had a hard time keeping track of characters or following the time jumps I did not. After an initial anxiety at the character list I decided to trust that the story would provide all that I needed to follow. It did. I noted which standard (grade) matched with with the characters' age. If I forgot to whom a character was related the text quickly provided the info needed. I was free to immerse myself in scenes that often reminded me of Jamaica.
My only complaint is that Subramanian thought it necessary to dead name and misgender Joy, the only major trans character, in complete contradiction to the lines she gave to Joy--"I'm not going to be a girl...I already am a girl". Cis writers must get past their own limitations of understanding trans identity through a binary lens--a "before" and "after"--to show how characters may misgender + dead name without having the narrative reinforce that perspective. Read trans writers.
Nicole is a Jamaican writer who, from book to book, reveals more new things about life in Jamaica that I didn't know.
She levelled up in this sophomorNicole is a Jamaican writer who, from book to book, reveals more new things about life in Jamaica that I didn't know.
She levelled up in this sophomore title producing an imagery laden, emotionally precise novel about two characters who exist outside society's prescribed bounds of womanhood. The light and the darkness, birds in flight or caged, curses and blessings, that scent of blood...
I don't know that I ever liked Patsy but I ached for her. Tru had my whole heart. The book ended a little too neatly but I was content to see characters getting a kind of happy ending without being asked to change who they were, fundamentally.
Nicole's depiction of sexual abuse is far more complex and nuanced than I'm used to seeing in print or visual media. This and Here Comes the Sun are exactly the kind of books that should be assigned in schools.
Not sure why I only gave this 4 stars. 4.5? ...more
Loading...
