BOOK REVIEW | Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi

2/5 stars

I’ll preface by saying that I know is an unpopular opinion, and that Yaa Gyasi is very loved and respected. I believe there’s a reader for every book, but in this case this just wasn’t for me. It’s hard for me to rate books below 3 stars as I have a deep respect for those who share their vulnerability and put their work out into the world. I also value respectful criticism when required, which I’ll try to provide here. There may be mild spoilers below.

Gyasi has crafted a story aimed at addressing some pretty heavy subject matter: depression, grief, addiction, and the immigrant experience (from multiple generations). The story centres around Gifty who is caring for her deeply depressed Ghanaian mother in the aftermath of her brother’s death by overdose. Gifty is a gifted neuroscience student, studying addiction in mice as a way to heal and better understand her brother’s inability to recover.

The style is that of a memoir – we spend most of our time in Gifty’s head, reading about her as she walks through these experiences. What was missing for me was an emotional depth that never came to be. As an example, Gifty describes finding her mother suicidal and overcome with grief, but describes the scene so factually that I was not able to feel that despair along with her. This happens time and time again as the family experiences blatant racism, abandonment by the patriarch of the family, and the pitfalls of addiction.

Perhaps its because Gifty is emotionally closed off or because she is a scientist who looks at situations factually, but the writing was too flat and uninvolved to elevate this book for me. I loved the concept of the story, but was ultimately left empty and unattached. Another thread to this story is that of the second generation immigrant – Gifty came to America at a very young age so has no real connection to Ghana, but also feels a sense of displacement in America. Again, the story alludes to this discontentment, but never goes all the way with it. In short, I wanted so much more from nearly every facet of this book.

If you’ve read Transcendent Kingdom I’d love to hear your thoughts. Am I completely off the mark? Did you love it?

BOOK REVIEW | Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates

5/5 stars

I have nothing of value to add to the praise of this book, except for a little more of it. A deeply personal and painful examination of race in America, then and now. Coates draws upon the writers that came before him, specifically James Baldwin and Richard Wright (whose poem by the same same name inspired Coates’ book), to discuss race for this generation in epistolary form. Profound and heartbreaking, but written accessibly, this is required reading.

BOOK REVIEW | The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison

5/5 stars

A simple premise – the story of a young Black girl who wishes to be beautiful, to have blue eyes. The bluest eyes anyone has ever seen. As expected with Toni Morrison, though, this is so much more than that. Morrison doesn’t need to tell you about systemic racism or inter-generational trauma in simplistic terms – she’s going to show you. Her stories, while for everyone, speak to an audience that have lived lives colored by that reality.

Pecola Breedlove has always been made to feel ugly, both by the white community and her own Black community. Morrison spends a significant amount of time on the backstories of Pecola’s mother and father, and through these stories we better understand what they bring to the table as parents. While those backstories provide some of the Bluest Eye’s most significant moments, I can’t help but feel we’re missing more of Pecola’s voice. While Pecola is always present she’s often on the sidelines, invisible. Although, two parents so immersed in their own trauma that they don’t emotionally nourish their daughter and a young Black girl who feels invisible doesn’t seem like too much of a stretch.

Let me be clear though, this book is brilliant. The passages are bold and stunning and yes, heavy and heartbreaking. Morrison is ambitious in the themes she explores in her debut; sexual abuse, mental health, poverty, internalized racism, and inter-generational trauma; there’s a sense that she found her calling and needed to get as many ideas as possible on the page. Her undeniable voice and badass style are in full form, with so many moments taking my breath away. I can’t wait to jump into Sula, my 3rd Morrison, and continue exploring the gifts and that she left us.

BOOK REVIEW | Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid

3/5 stars

I was initially incredibly hard on this book. It’s up for literary awards and is touted a contemporary work on racism. As I read on, I contemplated putting it down many times; it just wasn’t a book for me. However, I kept reading, and around half way through I realized I needed to take the book less seriously – this is entertainment. Once I put away my expectations for the book, I was able to enjoy it as a fun page-turner.

The story surrounds Alix, a wealthy, white, influencer, and mother of two and Emira, her young, Black, babysitter. One night, Alix calls Emira in a panic: she needs an emergency babysitter. While Emira is out passing the time with her young, white, charge she is subject to racial profiling and becomes the star of the next would be viral video. At Emira’s request, the white man who records the incident promises he won’t share the video publicly.

What follows is a fast-paced story that touches on racism, specifically white savior complex and performative action, as well as the victimization and commodification of Black people. In this story, Emira serves a specific role in the narrative of Alix’s carefully curated life. I initially thought I was supposed like Alix, but once I realized she’s kind of the villain of the story I was able to enjoy it much more. The last quarter of this book was completely entertaining and almost reads like a thriller. Overall, a fun and timely book that address critical issues with a lightness many readers will enjoy. I’m more the heavy type myself, but I understand this book’s appeal.

BOOK REVIEW | Corregidora by Gayl Jones

5/5 stars

Corregidora meets its readers at the intersection of racial and sexual trauma. This powerful book, first published in 1975, tells the story of Ursa Corregdira as she reckons with both her violent family history and her experience as a woman navigating her own intimate relationships.

Ursa is a talented blues singer, making her living performing in bars. After a violent encounter with her husband leaves her unable to have children, she becomes consumed with the generations that came before her, and the generations that she can no longer produce. Told though conversations, inner-dialogue, and memory, we piece together a painful family history passed down from Corregidora’s grandmother and mother.

There’s so much packed into this short book, from a woman’s right to sexual autonomy, to the psychological impact of the male gaze, to the lingering effects of intergenerational trauma. What struck me the most was the sense of loneliness. Ursa is desired for her talent as a singer and for her body, but rarely for who she is – the intersectionality of black womanhood that is still relevant today. She contends with her inability to “make generations”, which highlights the question of what society values in a woman.

The language in this book is extremely raw and visceral with an transparency unlike anything I’ve read before. The prose is colloquial and accessible which allows you to feel deeply for and with Ursa. Corregiadora is the most honest portrayal of womanhood I’ve encountered, and I am so incredibly glad to have discovered Gayl Jones.

BOOK REVIEW | Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo

5/5 stars

I knew from the first page that I was going to love this book. It’s heavily stylistic but compulsively readable. Broken down into 4 sections and an epilogue, we follow the lives of 12 primarily black British women. There are mothers and daughters, friends and lovers, wealthy and working class, young and old. The stories range in time from 1905 to present day – Evaristo covers ample ground with ease.

We’re first introduced to the effervescent Amma, a successful feminist playwright. Amma is the axis which many of the other stories spin around. Everyone connects to Amma in one way or another: we learn about her business partner Dominique and daughter Yazz, and later we see certain characters as attendees at Amma’s latest play, connecting solely through her art. The interconnectedness is masterfully crafted and it was a joy to read through each of these stories, slowly piecing together a history of black British womanhood.

I felt more connected to some of the women than others, but laughed, cried, and experienced pain with all of them. I was particularly invested in Dominique, who ends up in a relationship she needs to escape from, LaTisha, who falls for men too easily, Bummi, who finds the love of her life but is fearful of what it means, Carole, who rejects her African roots to embrace a posh lifestyle, and Grace, who loses baby after baby after baby in a time when providing her husband an heir is required.

Evaristo won a Booker award for this work, and is currently a Women’s Prize finalist. The accolades are absolutely deserved! It’s a sweeping, grand, beautifully crafted work. If you’re looking for a book to get lost in, this is it.

BOOK REVIEW | Beloved by Toni Morrison

5/5 stars

What can I say about Beloved that hasn’t been said before? It’s a truly remarkable work.

This is the raw and powerful story of Sethe, a woman who escaped slavery, but not before committing a horrific act as a way of keeping her children from becoming slaves as well. Eighteen years later, Sethe is haunted by her past. Morrison examines both the lasting effects of slavery, as well as the mental health of the enslaved.

Morrison is otherworldly in her prose; poetic, intimate, explicit – I caught my breath more than once while reading certain passages. The first was early on in the book when Sethe tells her lover, Paul D, that she has a tree on her back. Paul looks at her tree post-coitus and instead sees the gnarled scars left behind after a brutal whipping. It’s a sad, graphic moment, and when I first understood the power of Morrison’s craft.

A heavy, dense story that commands your attention, but it’s worth every bit of the effort. A book to be read over and over again.

BOOK REVIEW | If Beale Street Could Talk by James Baldwin

5/5 stars

A beautiful, heartbreaking, and painfully relevant story. A young couple in love and newly pregnant fall victim to racism and a corrupt police force. James Baldwin has a potency to his work that is unlike any other; he’s one of the greatest writers I’ve ever read.

It’s sobering to realize how little has changed in America since it’s publication in 1974. Black people are still routinely framed and even killed by police nearly 50 years later. It’s deeply painful.

This story feels current, not just in content but also in style. Less a bit of 1970’s slang, this book could have been published today. The sweetness of the tender young love story between Fonny and Tish contrasts excruciatingly with the horrors of racism, over-policing, and an unjust prison system.

This is my third Baldwin, and I’m already itching to pick up another. I’ve finished The Fire Next Time and Giovanni’s Room in addition to Beale Street. I’m thinking of trying Another Country next, and then maybe some more of his non-fiction. When I love a writer I try not to binge their work, but Baldwin is the sort of writer your never truly finished with.

BOOK REVIEW | The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead

4/5 stars

Colson Whitehead shines a light on the dark recesses of American history with The Nickel Boys. Inspired by the haunting true story of the Arthur G. Dozier reform school for boys, Whitehead’s fictional account is as important as it is disturbing. Operating out of Marianna, a small town in the panhandle, black boys were routinely beaten, raped, and killed by staff. As of 2011, at least 80 bodies were found in a mass gravesite on the school grounds.

The story revolves around Elwood, a young boy, coming of age and beginning to engage with the civil rights movement. He’s a good kid; works at a convenience store, idolizes Martin Luther King Jr., and is starting to find his way in the world. Elwood is planning to go to college when he finds himself in the wrong place at the wrong time, and is ultimately sent to reform school, The Nickel Academy. Elwood quickly discovers the atrocities occurring behind the walls, himself falling victim to brutal beatings.

The story is told in a uniquely non-linear format, which works well with Whitehead’s story. It’s not until the epilogue that everything comes full circle, and the reality of what you’ve read sets in. So often the dark parts of the past are “razed, cleared and neatly erased from history”, and I’m grateful to Whitehead for taking this on and bringing attention to the boys lost and forever changed at Dozier school.

BOOK REVIEW | Find Me by Andre Aciman

4/5 stars

I approached Find Me with moderate expectations; I’ve read a few books by Aciman so I knew that his writing would be as lush and beautiful as always, but had trepidations as a follow up to Call My By Your Name. As expected, the prose is beautiful and fulfilling, but those looking for a continuation of Elio and Oliver’s story may be left wanting more.

The first and longest section of the book follows Elio’s father, Samuel. A chance meeting with a much younger woman on a train evolves quickly into a passionate romance. I enjoyed following up with Samuel, he’s a critical part of CMBYN, and it’s nice hearing more from his perspective. The older man, younger woman trope is a little tired, but Aciman is such an amazing writer that it’s easy to forgive this stereotype. However, I chuckled during a couple over the top intimate moments; in CMBYN the intensity of young romance allows for ridiculous declarations of love and obsession – it’s not as natural when it comes to an older couple.

Next we catch up with Elio, now living in Paris and working as a pianist. Elio develops a relationship with older man who attended one of his performances. Though their relationship is going well, he’s reminded of the empty space in his life that is Oliver. Oliver’s section reveals a lifetime of regret. He’s lived well, and attempts to fill the void in his life with different partners, but knows he has to find Elio again.

In a fourth, very short, final section we see Elio and Oliver reunited. This epilogue of sorts is lovely, and I think what all fans of the first book waited patiently for. Part of me wishes this was longer, and that Aciman left more space for their story. However, there’s a sense of completeness to it as well: I feel satisfied with how it ended.

I’m a huge fan of CMBYN – it was profoundly moving and I didn’t expect this book to replicate that, as very few books can so affecting. This was a great reading experience in and of itself. If you’ve read Aciman you’ll know that he has an ability to tap into desire like no one else, and Find Me is no exception.