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If I Survive You by Jonathan Escoffery
“I’d be able to move out of my car and rent my own apartment; I could live like a fully formed twenty-first-century North American human. I needed this.” Being a big fan of collections of short stories following the same character/s, I was keen to read If I Survive You. Each chapter in this debut…
1970s, 1980s, 1990s, 2000s, 20th century, 3 STARS, Adult, adulthood, America, AMERICAN AUTHOR, belonging, Black & Black heritage authors, black diaspora, brothers, Caribbean, CHILDHOOD, collection of short stories, Contemporary, contemporary malaise, different styles (1st/2nd/3rd povs), drama, family, fathers & sons, FLORIDA, gritty realism, growing up, HIGH SCHOOL, homelessness, HUMOR, interconnected stories, intergenerational, jamaica, Jonathan Escoffery, LITERARY FICTION, male authors, masculinity, Miami, migration/immigration, music band, natural disasters, PRIVILEGE, published in 2022, RACE, read in 2022, satire, short stories, snapshots, SOCIAL COMMENTARY, work culture -
How to Love a Jamaican by Alexia Arthurs
How to Love a Jamaican: Stories is a promising debut collection that focuses on the Jamaican diasporic experience, highlighting cultural and generational differences and providing us with some wonderfully realized vignettes. Alexia Arthurs’ prose is engaging, unsentimental yet lyrical, and she’s fully able to bring the places she’s writing of—be it America or Jamaica—to life.…
3.25 stars, Adult, America, American, bi side characters, Black & Black heritage authors, BOOK REVIEW, BOOK REVIEWS, Booklr, Caribbean, caribbean author, class, collection of short stories, Contemporary, cultural dissonance, different styles (1st/2nd/3rd povs), family, female authors, intergenerational, jamaica, jamaican, jamaican american author, lesbian side characters, lgbtq+, LITERARY FICTION, migration/immigration, My reviews, published in 2018, read in 2021, reading, short stories -
Frying Plantain by Zalika Reid-Benta
“I wondered if all daughters fought with their mothers this way when they grew up.” Frying Plantain presents its readers with a vibrant coming-of-age. Through the course of twelve chapters Zalika Reid-Benta captures a girl’s transition from childhood to adolescence into young adulthood. But this is far from a conventional Bildungsroman as within each chapter…
Adult, Black & Black heritage authors, BOOK REVIEWS, canada, canadian author, Caribbean, CHILDHOOD, class, collection of short stories, coming of age, Contemporary, cultural dissonance, different styles (1st/2nd/3rd povs), family, female authors, friendships, Frying Plantain, girlhood, growing up, HIGH SCHOOL, interconnected stories, intergenerational, introspective, ISLAND, jamaica, jamaican, LITERARY FICTION, mothers & daughters, re-reads, read in 2020, read in 2021, short stories, Toronto, Zalika Reid-Benta
luce [is reading] 