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How to Love a Jamaican
An The Oprah Magazine "Top 15 Best of the Year" - A Well-Read Black Girl's Pick
Tenderness and cruelty, loyalty and betrayal, ambition and regret--Alexia Arthurs navigates these tensions to extraordinary effect in her debut collection about Jamaican immigrants and their families back home. Sweeping from close-knit island communities to the streets of New York City and midwestern university towns, these eleven stories form a portrait of a nation, a people, and a way of life.
In "Light-Skinned Girls and Kelly Rowlands," an NYU student befriends a fellow Jamaican whose privileged West Coast upbringing has blinded her to the hard realities of race. In "Mash Up Love," a twin's chance sighting of his estranged brother--the prodigal son of the family--stirs up unresolved feelings of resentment. In "Bad Behavior," a couple leave their wild teenage daughter with her grandmother in Jamaica, hoping the old ways will straighten her out. In "Mermaid River," a Jamaican teenage boy is reunited with his mother in New York after eight years apart. In "The Ghost of Jia Yi," a recently murdered student haunts a despairing Jamaican athlete recruited to an Iowa college. And in "Shirley from a Small Place," a world-famous pop star retreats to her mother's big new house in Jamaica, which still holds the power to restore something vital.
Alexia Arthurs emerges in this vibrant, lyrical, intimate collection as one of fiction's most dynamic and essential authors.
Tenderness and cruelty, loyalty and betrayal, ambition and regret--Alexia Arthurs navigates these tensions to extraordinary effect in her debut collection about Jamaican immigrants and their families back home. Sweeping from close-knit island communities to the streets of New York City and midwestern university towns, these eleven stories form a portrait of a nation, a people, and a way of life.
In "Light-Skinned Girls and Kelly Rowlands," an NYU student befriends a fellow Jamaican whose privileged West Coast upbringing has blinded her to the hard realities of race. In "Mash Up Love," a twin's chance sighting of his estranged brother--the prodigal son of the family--stirs up unresolved feelings of resentment. In "Bad Behavior," a couple leave their wild teenage daughter with her grandmother in Jamaica, hoping the old ways will straighten her out. In "Mermaid River," a Jamaican teenage boy is reunited with his mother in New York after eight years apart. In "The Ghost of Jia Yi," a recently murdered student haunts a despairing Jamaican athlete recruited to an Iowa college. And in "Shirley from a Small Place," a world-famous pop star retreats to her mother's big new house in Jamaica, which still holds the power to restore something vital.
Alexia Arthurs emerges in this vibrant, lyrical, intimate collection as one of fiction's most dynamic and essential authors.
256 pages, Kindle Edition
First published July 24, 2018
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 672 reviews
March 5, 2020
Strong debut collection about the Jamaican and immigrant experience both in Jamaica and the United States. There are some truly outstanding stories here--We Eat Our Daughters, Shirley From a Small Place, Slack. I really appreciated the slyness of some of the stories and the sort of inscrutable story endings. At times, the stories did not feel as fleshed out as they could. There was some stilted language. And there was a real fixation with light-skinned men with green eyes. Like... damn. But we all have these quirks. My characters exhale a lot and have flat stomachs. Anyway, that said, this is a great book. I got a lot out of it and didn't want to put it down.
June 14, 2018
How to love a Jamaican is a collection of short stories which are as vibrant as the cover of the book itself! I won’t give a synopsis of the book, but I will tell you that this book is wonderfully written and engaging. The book focuses on Jamaicans living in both Jamaica and America. The book has themes such as family, culture, the harshness of life, Motherhood (and controlling mothers), self-discovery, sexuality, love, personal growth, insight, the immigrant experience, and coming home.
Years ago, I would have told you that I do not like short stories. I was not a fan. Then around two years ago, I had a change of heart and began reading them from time to time. I have found that I am enjoying short stories more and more. I am intrigued how an Author can create interesting characters and his/her idiosyncrasies and draw the character into those characters world if only for a short period of time. I think this is the mark of a great storyteller. Obviously, there were stories in this book which I enjoyed more than others but as a whole, this book is captivating from beginning to end. Plus, am I the only person reading this book who did not know what salt fish was? Thee is a lot of cooking of salt fish in this book (a pregnant dog even helps herself to some!) and I am intrigued and will be on a mission to try some!
Thank you to Random House Publishing -Ballantine and NetGalley who provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All the thoughts and opinions expressed in this book are my own.
Read more of my reviews at www.openbookpost.com
Years ago, I would have told you that I do not like short stories. I was not a fan. Then around two years ago, I had a change of heart and began reading them from time to time. I have found that I am enjoying short stories more and more. I am intrigued how an Author can create interesting characters and his/her idiosyncrasies and draw the character into those characters world if only for a short period of time. I think this is the mark of a great storyteller. Obviously, there were stories in this book which I enjoyed more than others but as a whole, this book is captivating from beginning to end. Plus, am I the only person reading this book who did not know what salt fish was? Thee is a lot of cooking of salt fish in this book (a pregnant dog even helps herself to some!) and I am intrigued and will be on a mission to try some!
Thank you to Random House Publishing -Ballantine and NetGalley who provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All the thoughts and opinions expressed in this book are my own.
Read more of my reviews at www.openbookpost.com
September 18, 2018
going on vacation = getting ahead in my reading but behind in my reviewing, so i’m going to review this as a whole instead of writing a mini-review for each story. please do not riot in the streets over my decision.
this is an impressive first showing. many young authors debuting with short story collections try to do too much, throwing every writer’s workshoppy trick of voice, genre, etc. they have into the pot to see what works, and it usually makes for an uneven collection. How to Love a Jamaican, on the other hand, is steady and confident. arthurs knows her voice, her style and her theme, and she doesn’t rely on fanfare to hold the reader’s attention.
these stories are best described as “nostalgic realism” and their most common unifying theme is “the jamaican immigrant experience.” she explores this central theme in a number of ways, but many of the stories feature a looking-back or a juxtaposition of some sort; comparing life/experiences between youth and adulthood, between one’s native and adopted cultures, between the older and younger generations. there’s an especial emphasis on motherhood, race, assimilation, sexuality (both teen pregnancy and homosexuality), value systems (etiquette, morality, social expectations), on returning to the motherland, or experiencing the ancestral homeland for the first time.
one of my favorites was the last (and longest) story, Shirley From a Small Place, which reminded me of zadie smith’s Swing Time, all fame and choices that disappoint the people back home, the people who knew you when (particularly mothers, right?) and how success changes a person, isolates them from what they once were and what they once thought they wanted out of life and all the public-facing glamour and private self-loathing that comes with the territory.
it's a strong entrée into the short story pool, with enough connective echoes linking the stories that i hope to see a novel from her in the future, just 'cuz i like novels more than short stories. however, if the short story is her tru luv 4-eva, i'll gladly read a second collection, which is not something i have said about many authors.
*********************************************
review to come. too busy vacationing...
TABLE OF CONTENTS
LIGHT-SKINNED GIRLS AND KELLY ROWLANDS
MASH UP LOVE
SLACK
BAD BEHAVIOR
ISLAND
MERMAID RIVER
THE GHOST OF JIA YI
HOW TO LOVE A JAMAICAN
ON SHELF
WE EAT OUR DAUGHTERS
SHIRLEY FROM A SMALL PLACE
come to my blog!
this is an impressive first showing. many young authors debuting with short story collections try to do too much, throwing every writer’s workshoppy trick of voice, genre, etc. they have into the pot to see what works, and it usually makes for an uneven collection. How to Love a Jamaican, on the other hand, is steady and confident. arthurs knows her voice, her style and her theme, and she doesn’t rely on fanfare to hold the reader’s attention.
these stories are best described as “nostalgic realism” and their most common unifying theme is “the jamaican immigrant experience.” she explores this central theme in a number of ways, but many of the stories feature a looking-back or a juxtaposition of some sort; comparing life/experiences between youth and adulthood, between one’s native and adopted cultures, between the older and younger generations. there’s an especial emphasis on motherhood, race, assimilation, sexuality (both teen pregnancy and homosexuality), value systems (etiquette, morality, social expectations), on returning to the motherland, or experiencing the ancestral homeland for the first time.
one of my favorites was the last (and longest) story, Shirley From a Small Place, which reminded me of zadie smith’s Swing Time, all fame and choices that disappoint the people back home, the people who knew you when (particularly mothers, right?) and how success changes a person, isolates them from what they once were and what they once thought they wanted out of life and all the public-facing glamour and private self-loathing that comes with the territory.
it's a strong entrée into the short story pool, with enough connective echoes linking the stories that i hope to see a novel from her in the future, just 'cuz i like novels more than short stories. however, if the short story is her tru luv 4-eva, i'll gladly read a second collection, which is not something i have said about many authors.
*********************************************
review to come. too busy vacationing...
TABLE OF CONTENTS
LIGHT-SKINNED GIRLS AND KELLY ROWLANDS
MASH UP LOVE
SLACK
BAD BEHAVIOR
ISLAND
MERMAID RIVER
THE GHOST OF JIA YI
HOW TO LOVE A JAMAICAN
ON SHELF
WE EAT OUR DAUGHTERS
SHIRLEY FROM A SMALL PLACE
come to my blog!
July 30, 2018
How to Love a Jamaican is Alexia Arthurs’ confidently-written debut collection, featuring eleven immigrant and return-migration vignettes. I refer to them as vignettes because they are more “slice of life” or reflection essays than they are short stories. The first couple of entries have a Young Adult flavor in terms of both the topics addressed and the writing style, but, taken as a whole, the multiple characters of Jamaican descent vary in genders, sexual preferences, ages, choices and concerns, and the author’s writing style – while straightforward – is not Young Adult for the remainder of the included tales.
Relationships between Jamaican-born adults and their country of origin, their mothers who remain resident in Jamaica, between friends, between generations -- all offer fodder for Arthurs’ story telling talents. The imagined sights and aromas of oxtail, Jamaican apples, rice, peas, mangoes, curry, callaloo and more permeate every story. Some characters live in Jamaica. Others have made their home in America, but plan to retire to Jamaica. Still others have left for good, but their memories of the island are ever-present. That variety of experience propels the reader through the collection.
I found this collection most interesting for how grounded it was in Jamaican culture – varied as it is. The patois, the expectations of sexual behavior and what makes for a desirable partner for young women, the values, dreams, adaptations on display – all make How to Love a Jamaican worth a reader’s time. I am in the minority of readers who did not find either the first or last stories to be at the same level of either significance or writing quality as the rest of the collection. The last story, Shirley From a Small Place, based on Barbados-born Rihanna, struck me as particularly un-worthy of inclusion, or at least should have been buried somewhere in the middle instead of featured at the end. I waited a couple of weeks after finishing How to Love a Jamaican to write my review, in part, to put some distance between Shirley and my brain and try to recall all the good of the tales presented before it.
Arthurs is at her best when telling the story of characters who don’t quite belong anywhere, those for whom loving a person or a country are insufficient to provide the answers to life. My favorites were Island, Mermaid River and Bad Behavior. I look forward to reading Arthurs' first novel, if she pens it.
Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for providing a review copy.
Relationships between Jamaican-born adults and their country of origin, their mothers who remain resident in Jamaica, between friends, between generations -- all offer fodder for Arthurs’ story telling talents. The imagined sights and aromas of oxtail, Jamaican apples, rice, peas, mangoes, curry, callaloo and more permeate every story. Some characters live in Jamaica. Others have made their home in America, but plan to retire to Jamaica. Still others have left for good, but their memories of the island are ever-present. That variety of experience propels the reader through the collection.
I found this collection most interesting for how grounded it was in Jamaican culture – varied as it is. The patois, the expectations of sexual behavior and what makes for a desirable partner for young women, the values, dreams, adaptations on display – all make How to Love a Jamaican worth a reader’s time. I am in the minority of readers who did not find either the first or last stories to be at the same level of either significance or writing quality as the rest of the collection. The last story, Shirley From a Small Place, based on Barbados-born Rihanna, struck me as particularly un-worthy of inclusion, or at least should have been buried somewhere in the middle instead of featured at the end. I waited a couple of weeks after finishing How to Love a Jamaican to write my review, in part, to put some distance between Shirley and my brain and try to recall all the good of the tales presented before it.
Arthurs is at her best when telling the story of characters who don’t quite belong anywhere, those for whom loving a person or a country are insufficient to provide the answers to life. My favorites were Island, Mermaid River and Bad Behavior. I look forward to reading Arthurs' first novel, if she pens it.
Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for providing a review copy.
February 27, 2019
Your first time to America, Iowa isn’t where you expect to end up. Midwestern towns are at times charming, and stretches of farmland have been thought to be beautiful, but Iowa isn’t the kind of place Jamaicans talk about when they talk about America. Before Tiffany left home, whenever she told people that she was moving to Iowa because a school offered her a track scholarship, they screwed up their faces because they’d only heard of the well-known places in the States. So she started to tell people that she was going to a place near Chicago, because Chicago might have been a place they’d heard of before. Sometimes, when things were really bad, she said, “Near where Oprah use to live.”
A nice collection of stories, I missed it after I finished.
June 25, 2020
An All Time Favorite Read!
I read How to Love A Jamaican by Alexia Arthurs back in 2018 and I decided to give it a re-read for Read Caribbean month happening in June. There is a special sense of feeling you get when you open a book and see that it is dedicated to you… a Jamaican and that feeling stays with you!
In re-reading this book, I laughed out loud on numerous occasions, I shed a tear, I nodded my head in agreement, and I was absolutely overwhelmed by a feeling of homesickness. It is not every day you open a book and you see yourself, your family, how you grew up being recounted on the page and for that I’ll be forever grateful to Alexia Arthurs.
How to Love A Jamaican is collection of 11 short stories that perfectly captures Jamaican, Jamaican life, culture, history and a bit of folklore in a truly electrifying way. There are some stories that sticks with you, that gets under your skin and doesn’t leave you, that is how you know the writing is amazing…. Or it could be that I am a Jamaican and I am biased… but I don’t think that is it.
As someone who grew up in rural Jamaica, there are so many of the stories that ring true in how they felt, in the characterization and the use of old sayings. A lot of the characters in this collection reminds me of people I’ve met or grew up with. There is a distinct feeling you get reading this book and I don't know how to explain that feeling unless you are a Jamaican, related to a Jamaican, from Jamaican heritage or loved a Jamaican.
I could gush and go on and on about this collection. It is a book I hold dear, a book I cannot stop talking about- two years later, a book I always recommend, a book that remains close to my heart.
Please read.
Review in 2018
I finally finished How To Love A Jamaican and I am thoroughly pleased with this debut novel. I have to admit I can be a bit biased when I read books written by Jamaicans about Jamaicans, but even with my Jamaican googles off this book is absolutely a must-read.
I am so impressed with Alexia Arthur’s writing, she perfectly captures the various nuances of the Jamaican culture and its people. If you are looking for a solid collection of short stories that’s diverse and much as it is real. I would list my favorite stories in this book but I would basically be re-writing the content page (lol).
A must read and absolute favorite of mine!
I read How to Love A Jamaican by Alexia Arthurs back in 2018 and I decided to give it a re-read for Read Caribbean month happening in June. There is a special sense of feeling you get when you open a book and see that it is dedicated to you… a Jamaican and that feeling stays with you!
In re-reading this book, I laughed out loud on numerous occasions, I shed a tear, I nodded my head in agreement, and I was absolutely overwhelmed by a feeling of homesickness. It is not every day you open a book and you see yourself, your family, how you grew up being recounted on the page and for that I’ll be forever grateful to Alexia Arthurs.
How to Love A Jamaican is collection of 11 short stories that perfectly captures Jamaican, Jamaican life, culture, history and a bit of folklore in a truly electrifying way. There are some stories that sticks with you, that gets under your skin and doesn’t leave you, that is how you know the writing is amazing…. Or it could be that I am a Jamaican and I am biased… but I don’t think that is it.
As someone who grew up in rural Jamaica, there are so many of the stories that ring true in how they felt, in the characterization and the use of old sayings. A lot of the characters in this collection reminds me of people I’ve met or grew up with. There is a distinct feeling you get reading this book and I don't know how to explain that feeling unless you are a Jamaican, related to a Jamaican, from Jamaican heritage or loved a Jamaican.
I could gush and go on and on about this collection. It is a book I hold dear, a book I cannot stop talking about- two years later, a book I always recommend, a book that remains close to my heart.
Please read.
Review in 2018
I finally finished How To Love A Jamaican and I am thoroughly pleased with this debut novel. I have to admit I can be a bit biased when I read books written by Jamaicans about Jamaicans, but even with my Jamaican googles off this book is absolutely a must-read.
I am so impressed with Alexia Arthur’s writing, she perfectly captures the various nuances of the Jamaican culture and its people. If you are looking for a solid collection of short stories that’s diverse and much as it is real. I would list my favorite stories in this book but I would basically be re-writing the content page (lol).
A must read and absolute favorite of mine!
March 30, 2018
I’m so happy to have received an ARC from NetGalley because this was such a phenomenal collection of stories. I love when a debut author has a fully-realized voice: there is an immediacy to Alexia Arthurs’s writing which allows all of the complex emotions her characters experience to be incredibly touching and relatable. Every story has a person of Jamaican descent as a main character, with most of the stories focused on self-discovery, remembrance, and moments of transcendence. There is a story about a pop star who returns home in order to find the strength to decide to be happy, there is a young athlete who leaves the Island to attend college and begins to be haunted by the ghost of a recently murdered student who is also from a place outside of the states, there are the collection of women who muse about the ways in which their mothers control their lives, and the woman who is 40 and successful and decides that a marriage can be one of convenience and still make her happy, and on and on. I immensely enjoyed!!!
June 15, 2025
An All Time Favorite Read!
I read How to Love A Jamaican by Alexia Arthurs back in 2018 and I decided to give it a re-read for Read Caribbean month happening in June. There is a special sense of feeling you get when you open a book and see that it is dedicated to you… a Jamaican and that feeling stays with you!
In re-reading this book, I laughed out loud on numerous occasions, I shed a tear, I nodded my head in agreement, and I was absolutely overwhelmed by a feeling of homesickness. It is not every day you open a book and you see yourself, your family, how you grew up being recounted on the page and for that I’ll be forever grateful to Alexia Arthurs.
How to Love A Jamaican is collection of 11 short stories that perfectly captures Jamaican, Jamaican life, culture, history and a bit of folklore in a truly electrifying way. There are some stories that sticks with you, that gets under your skin and doesn’t leave you, that is how you know the writing is amazing…. Or it could be that I am a Jamaican and I am biased… but I don’t think that is it.
As someone who grew up in rural Jamaica, there are so many of the stories that ring true in how they felt, in the characterization and the use of old sayings. A lot of the characters in this collection reminds me of people I’ve met or grew up with. There is a distinct feeling you get reading this book and I don't know how to explain that feeling unless you are a Jamaican, related to a Jamaican, from Jamaican heritage or loved a Jamaican.
I could gush and go on and on about this collection. It is a book I hold dear, a book I cannot stop talking about- two years later, a book I always recommend, a book that remains close to my heart.
Please read.
Review in 2018
I finally finished How To Love A Jamaican and I am thoroughly pleased with this debut novel. I have to admit I can be a bit biased when I read books written by Jamaicans about Jamaicans, but even with my Jamaican googles off this book is absolutely a must-read.
I am so impressed with Alexia Arthur’s writing, she perfectly captures the various nuances of the Jamaican culture and its people. If you are looking for a solid collection of short stories that’s diverse and much as it is real. I would list my favorite stories in this book but I would basically be re-writing the content page (lol).
A must read and absolute favorite of mine!
I read How to Love A Jamaican by Alexia Arthurs back in 2018 and I decided to give it a re-read for Read Caribbean month happening in June. There is a special sense of feeling you get when you open a book and see that it is dedicated to you… a Jamaican and that feeling stays with you!
In re-reading this book, I laughed out loud on numerous occasions, I shed a tear, I nodded my head in agreement, and I was absolutely overwhelmed by a feeling of homesickness. It is not every day you open a book and you see yourself, your family, how you grew up being recounted on the page and for that I’ll be forever grateful to Alexia Arthurs.
How to Love A Jamaican is collection of 11 short stories that perfectly captures Jamaican, Jamaican life, culture, history and a bit of folklore in a truly electrifying way. There are some stories that sticks with you, that gets under your skin and doesn’t leave you, that is how you know the writing is amazing…. Or it could be that I am a Jamaican and I am biased… but I don’t think that is it.
As someone who grew up in rural Jamaica, there are so many of the stories that ring true in how they felt, in the characterization and the use of old sayings. A lot of the characters in this collection reminds me of people I’ve met or grew up with. There is a distinct feeling you get reading this book and I don't know how to explain that feeling unless you are a Jamaican, related to a Jamaican, from Jamaican heritage or loved a Jamaican.
I could gush and go on and on about this collection. It is a book I hold dear, a book I cannot stop talking about- two years later, a book I always recommend, a book that remains close to my heart.
Please read.
Review in 2018
I finally finished How To Love A Jamaican and I am thoroughly pleased with this debut novel. I have to admit I can be a bit biased when I read books written by Jamaicans about Jamaicans, but even with my Jamaican googles off this book is absolutely a must-read.
I am so impressed with Alexia Arthur’s writing, she perfectly captures the various nuances of the Jamaican culture and its people. If you are looking for a solid collection of short stories that’s diverse and much as it is real. I would list my favorite stories in this book but I would basically be re-writing the content page (lol).
A must read and absolute favorite of mine!
January 16, 2019
Thank you Debra!!! I knew I wanted to read this after reading your glowing review..... and I loved reading about your heart expansion for short stories for the last couple of years. It’s great to see readers opening up to the pleasures of short stories!
I’ve have been a SS ( short story), fan for a long time - often ready to defend - and send lists of dozen WONDERFUL short story collections, for others to experience themselves.
I splurged and paid full price for this hardcopy.....knowing its a prime ‘sharing’ book. ( a great add for our Airbnb book shelf ).
The entire book ( with its GORGEOUS book cover), is only 239 pages. There are eleven stories in this collection......NOT ONE of these stories are a dud!
The author - ( also gorgeous with a smile that will melt any heart), was born and raised in Jamaica. She moved to Brooklyn as a pre- teen. She’s a graduate of Hunter College and the Iowa’s Writer’s Workshop.
Highlight sentences that give away themes in these stories:
.....”The first time I saw Cecilia, she was the only other black girl in our small group during freshman orientation”.
.....”My close girlfriends, relationships forged back in High School, were daughters of Caribbean immigrants, and they left me lonely when we separated to attend different colleges”.
.....”White girls don’t need to earn your trust before they talk their business. It was easy to forget that Cecilia’s parents were Jamaican. Once she told me about the time her mother walked into her bedroom and caught masturbating. Her mother was quiet for awhile before she said, ‘I’ve stepped into something’, and walked out of the room. They never talked about it. These were the kind of stories that had us laughing too loudly when we were supposed to be studying”.
.....”Ann-Marie is cooking up some saltfish”. ( lots of saltfish cooking while talking about family members: dead and alive relatives).
.....”When the wife heard that her husband got some young girl pregnant, she turned up at Pepper’s House with a machete in her hand”.
.....”Pam and Curtis brought Stacy to Jamaica because they believed they didn’t know what else to do with her. They believed that her old-time granny would straighten her out. In Brooklyn, Stacy cut her classes often and she was caught giving a boy a blowjob in an empty classroom”.
.....”The summer I realized I was a lesbian, I thought about my island. What, I asked myself, if we built islands around ourselves, because it’s no sin to be self-sufficient?”
.....”Earlier That day, she kissed a mermaid. There’d been a merman. They’d kiss underwater, wrapping their fins together, their faces pinched in agony — the director had instructed, ‘look like you’re fu#king.....or at least this is what the finished product is to look like”.
Jamaican immigrants in North America..... looking for a better life......struggling with identity and the ‘home’ tribal experience.
Lots of warmth & humor in these stories......satisfying to our hearts!
Excellent!!!
Sparkling .....supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!
I’ve have been a SS ( short story), fan for a long time - often ready to defend - and send lists of dozen WONDERFUL short story collections, for others to experience themselves.
I splurged and paid full price for this hardcopy.....knowing its a prime ‘sharing’ book. ( a great add for our Airbnb book shelf ).
The entire book ( with its GORGEOUS book cover), is only 239 pages. There are eleven stories in this collection......NOT ONE of these stories are a dud!
The author - ( also gorgeous with a smile that will melt any heart), was born and raised in Jamaica. She moved to Brooklyn as a pre- teen. She’s a graduate of Hunter College and the Iowa’s Writer’s Workshop.
Highlight sentences that give away themes in these stories:
.....”The first time I saw Cecilia, she was the only other black girl in our small group during freshman orientation”.
.....”My close girlfriends, relationships forged back in High School, were daughters of Caribbean immigrants, and they left me lonely when we separated to attend different colleges”.
.....”White girls don’t need to earn your trust before they talk their business. It was easy to forget that Cecilia’s parents were Jamaican. Once she told me about the time her mother walked into her bedroom and caught masturbating. Her mother was quiet for awhile before she said, ‘I’ve stepped into something’, and walked out of the room. They never talked about it. These were the kind of stories that had us laughing too loudly when we were supposed to be studying”.
.....”Ann-Marie is cooking up some saltfish”. ( lots of saltfish cooking while talking about family members: dead and alive relatives).
.....”When the wife heard that her husband got some young girl pregnant, she turned up at Pepper’s House with a machete in her hand”.
.....”Pam and Curtis brought Stacy to Jamaica because they believed they didn’t know what else to do with her. They believed that her old-time granny would straighten her out. In Brooklyn, Stacy cut her classes often and she was caught giving a boy a blowjob in an empty classroom”.
.....”The summer I realized I was a lesbian, I thought about my island. What, I asked myself, if we built islands around ourselves, because it’s no sin to be self-sufficient?”
.....”Earlier That day, she kissed a mermaid. There’d been a merman. They’d kiss underwater, wrapping their fins together, their faces pinched in agony — the director had instructed, ‘look like you’re fu#king.....or at least this is what the finished product is to look like”.
Jamaican immigrants in North America..... looking for a better life......struggling with identity and the ‘home’ tribal experience.
Lots of warmth & humor in these stories......satisfying to our hearts!
Excellent!!!
Sparkling .....supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!
March 22, 2019
What does it feel like to be from and in between? Not everyone is from Jamaica, but most anyone can relate to the sensation of existing somewhere and nowhere all at once. Arthurs writes with authenticity and style. The audiobook performers are terrific as well.
July 24, 2018
Every time I picked up this book, the jingle from that old eighties ad campaign started flitting through my brain . . .
Come back to Jamaica. What's old is what's new.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qCUIF...
I remember all those happy smiling faces urging me to make Jamaica my new island home, and at first they seemed so at odds with the modern day characters in this book. Like many of us, Arthurs' people suffer from first world problems - getting a degree, finding a job, meeting and keeping friends, and whether or not to settle for a "less than ideal man." And yet, there's the call of the old - relatives still living in Jamaica, offering advice, or tossing out insults. Children growing too old too fast are sent there to be straightened out by their island grannies. Others, finding themselves too immersed in American culture, return home to recharge, and remember.
Come back to the way things used to be.
This is a wonderful collection of stories. Arthurs has a real knack for creating warm, rich, and intriguing characters. I truly hope she tackles a novel soon. It is a joy to spend time with the people she dreams up.
Come back to Jamaica. What's old is what's new.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qCUIF...
I remember all those happy smiling faces urging me to make Jamaica my new island home, and at first they seemed so at odds with the modern day characters in this book. Like many of us, Arthurs' people suffer from first world problems - getting a degree, finding a job, meeting and keeping friends, and whether or not to settle for a "less than ideal man." And yet, there's the call of the old - relatives still living in Jamaica, offering advice, or tossing out insults. Children growing too old too fast are sent there to be straightened out by their island grannies. Others, finding themselves too immersed in American culture, return home to recharge, and remember.
Come back to the way things used to be.
This is a wonderful collection of stories. Arthurs has a real knack for creating warm, rich, and intriguing characters. I truly hope she tackles a novel soon. It is a joy to spend time with the people she dreams up.
August 9, 2018
This is a tough review to write. I wanted to love this book so much. And I really did try to love it. It's closer to 3.5 stars - but a 4 star rating didn't feel honest to me. May adjust as I think this one over in the next few days.
My issues with this book are kind of hard to describe. I've grown to really enjoy collections of short stories, and some of my favourite reads in the past couple of years have been short story collections. But this one was missing something. I'm not sure what exactly, but the majority of the stories were just kind of...meh. When I first learned about this book, I was super excited. As a child of Jamaican immigrants to Canada, it felt like How to Love a Jamaican was going to be a book that spoke to my experiences and the experiences of my family as a part of the Jamaican diaspora. And in many ways, the book did speak to those experiences. There were so many references, phrases, and moments that just felt so very Jamaican. The author's strength in writing dialogue in Jamaican patois was particularly delightful for me. There were a couple of stories I really enjoyed. There were also some concepts I was surprised by, and loved. The first story was my favourite by far, and it excited me for the rest of the book, but for me none of the other stories landed with me in the same way as the first.
To be frank, a lot of the stories were just unmemorable. They are more like descriptions of the everyday lives of Jamaicans, but nothing very exciting or dramatic or interesting happens in many of the stories. Which is confusing, in a short story there is such limited time so the author's choice to just make the stories so descriptive and mundane confused me. In addition, there was SO much repetition in the stories. It felt like the author landed on some brilliant concepts and just overused them in multiple stories. The settings are the same in every book - Jamaica (duh), Brooklyn and small town Iowa. It got monotonous and kind of boring after a while.
I am definitely a bit disappointed. I am happy this book exists and happy I read it, and I will read more from Alexia Arthurs because I do think she is a good writer and has the potential to be a great writer, but something about this collection just left me feeling pretty unsatisfied. I may return to some of the stories I liked in a while and give them a serious re-read, but for now, I'll just hope her next work resonates more with me because Jamaican authors and Jamaican literature are so important and necessary.
My issues with this book are kind of hard to describe. I've grown to really enjoy collections of short stories, and some of my favourite reads in the past couple of years have been short story collections. But this one was missing something. I'm not sure what exactly, but the majority of the stories were just kind of...meh. When I first learned about this book, I was super excited. As a child of Jamaican immigrants to Canada, it felt like How to Love a Jamaican was going to be a book that spoke to my experiences and the experiences of my family as a part of the Jamaican diaspora. And in many ways, the book did speak to those experiences. There were so many references, phrases, and moments that just felt so very Jamaican. The author's strength in writing dialogue in Jamaican patois was particularly delightful for me. There were a couple of stories I really enjoyed. There were also some concepts I was surprised by, and loved. The first story was my favourite by far, and it excited me for the rest of the book, but for me none of the other stories landed with me in the same way as the first.
To be frank, a lot of the stories were just unmemorable. They are more like descriptions of the everyday lives of Jamaicans, but nothing very exciting or dramatic or interesting happens in many of the stories. Which is confusing, in a short story there is such limited time so the author's choice to just make the stories so descriptive and mundane confused me. In addition, there was SO much repetition in the stories. It felt like the author landed on some brilliant concepts and just overused them in multiple stories. The settings are the same in every book - Jamaica (duh), Brooklyn and small town Iowa. It got monotonous and kind of boring after a while.
I am definitely a bit disappointed. I am happy this book exists and happy I read it, and I will read more from Alexia Arthurs because I do think she is a good writer and has the potential to be a great writer, but something about this collection just left me feeling pretty unsatisfied. I may return to some of the stories I liked in a while and give them a serious re-read, but for now, I'll just hope her next work resonates more with me because Jamaican authors and Jamaican literature are so important and necessary.
March 16, 2020
Mulling over my thoughts on this collection of short stories that centers Jamaicans. There are some fantastic stories in this book, and others, that though they didn't impress me much, they have a certain vitality to them. This is where a half-star system would be helpful, because I don't love this enough to give it a 4 stars, but a 3-star rating feels weak.
3.5 stars
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If you are active in the bookstagram corner of IG, you have probably seen this book floating around. With a provocative title, this debut collection of short stories unsurprisingly centers the lives of Jamaicans. Jamaicans living in the US. Jamaicans who are queer. Jamaicans who are experiencing loss. Jamaican women with complicated relationships with their mothers. This book is a solid debut from author Alexia Arthurs that invites us into the emotional lives of its characters, in ways that are astute and unassuming.
Although there were a few stories that I did not love, the ones that I did enjoy were fantastic because I found them moving (Island; Mermaid River), perceptive (the titular story), engaging (Light Skinned Girls & Kelly Rowlands) and realistic AF (We Eat Our Daughters- one vignette in particular). Bad Behavior would have been an excellent story if the character's transformation had been explored more, and if her reunion with her parents had been more complex. Stories like The Ghost of Jia felt out of left-field, and the last story in the collection fell a bit flat for me.
I really liked this book, and am looking forward to what Alexia writes next
3.5 stars
------------------------------------------------
If you are active in the bookstagram corner of IG, you have probably seen this book floating around. With a provocative title, this debut collection of short stories unsurprisingly centers the lives of Jamaicans. Jamaicans living in the US. Jamaicans who are queer. Jamaicans who are experiencing loss. Jamaican women with complicated relationships with their mothers. This book is a solid debut from author Alexia Arthurs that invites us into the emotional lives of its characters, in ways that are astute and unassuming.
Although there were a few stories that I did not love, the ones that I did enjoy were fantastic because I found them moving (Island; Mermaid River), perceptive (the titular story), engaging (Light Skinned Girls & Kelly Rowlands) and realistic AF (We Eat Our Daughters- one vignette in particular). Bad Behavior would have been an excellent story if the character's transformation had been explored more, and if her reunion with her parents had been more complex. Stories like The Ghost of Jia felt out of left-field, and the last story in the collection fell a bit flat for me.
I really liked this book, and am looking forward to what Alexia writes next
August 6, 2018
I love this as much as I love A Brief History of Seven Killings. Which is to say, a whole heap. This book authentic and unexpected. Treat yourself and your shelves!
October 4, 2018
Content Warning: Substance Abuse, Statutory Rape, Child Death, Mental Illness
These short stories wove great storytelling and Jamaican culture together effortlessly. In Light Skinned Girls and Kelly Rowland's an NYU student has to hold fast to her own culture while witnessing someone who is far removed it. Two girls struggle to be friends while being honest about how their choices carry much more meaning because if where their from. This was my favorite story and it illustrated how identity and race can become problematic when you have to educate and defend it to everyone you meet. Throughout these stories characters have to take defensive stances which often leave them lonely.
"It's saying exactly what you think, regardless of how it will affect the listener. Perhaps this is the language of the oppressed- the colonized, the enslaved. Maybe our kind doesn't have time for soft words."
How to love a Jamaican is a hard road map because being Jamaican carries weights and meaning that is hard to convey. The author uses great imagery and hard circumstances to build resilient, diverse, and complex characters. These were great reflections on love, coming of age and grief. While the stories weren't connected the Jamaican characters gave glimpses into their culture in relatable ways. I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys short stories and learning about other cultures.
"But they used to call her Blackie or Dry head when she was in school, and no one had to tell her she wasn't the kind of woman anybody looked at more than once. Maybe that's why she lay down for the first man who paid her any mind, even though he was a married man with four children and had only three good teeth his mouth."
Recommended for Readers who
- appreciate cultural diversity and memorable characters
- enjoy reading about serious topics from many point of views
- want to read awesome prose that makes you think
July 24, 2018
How To Love A Jamaican is an excellent debut that I recommend to anyone looking for a collection of stories focusing on how people relate, love, and simply navigate each other. Arthurs has the ability to set an environment and open a connection to her characters quickly. The connecting theme of how to be and embrace who you are in a world that tries to make you conform to standards and expectations that aren't what you want or who you are meant to be is evident in each story. Each story presents a different challenge and circumstance that Arthurs uses to showcase the uniqueness of being Jamaican while also showing relatable family, social, and emotional issues many of us face and can relate to. Arthurs' love for Jamaican culture is clear and shines through in her descriptive writing. She doesn't hold punches when it comes to what is good or bad in Jamaican culture, but the love is still clearly there.
How To Love A Jamaican is a really good collection and I am looking forward to hopefully reading a full length novel from Alexia Arthurs in the near future.
**I received an ARC via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.**
You can find me at:
•(♥).•*Monlatable Book Reviews*•.(♥)•
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How To Love A Jamaican is a really good collection and I am looking forward to hopefully reading a full length novel from Alexia Arthurs in the near future.
**I received an ARC via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.**
You can find me at:
•(♥).•*Monlatable Book Reviews*•.(♥)•
Twitter: @MonlatReader
Instagram: @readermonica
Facebook: Monica Reeds
Goodreads Group: The Black Bookcase
June 13, 2018
All eleven stories in this collection are centered in the Jamaican experience both there and here in the US, mainly NYC, specifically Brooklyn, well because as she says in the story, The Ghost of Jia Yi, “Iowa isn’t the kind of place Jamaicans talk about when they talk about America.” The overriding theme of this work is the angst and emotional capriciousness of traversing this land as an immigrant. Although this particular story takes place at a University in Iowa.
The book starts off strong with a tale about a budding friendship in College. Although Kimberley and Cecilia are both Jamaican, they have had quite different experiences hailing from up Jamaica with one more rooted in her heritage and Cecelia seemingly trying to leave hers behind. This conflict typifies immigrants and the quest to assimilate a little, a lot, or not at all.
A heated exchange between Kimberley and Cecilia:
“You came across as the eternally offended black woman.”
“That’s because we are eternally being disrespected.”
Cecilia was shaking her head at me.
“Black people like you don’t have to think about race as much as the rest of us do.”
Unfortunately the rest of the book doesn’t maintain this promising momentum. And the failure to keep pace with this initial story is disappointing. The stories aren’t bad, just not remarkable in any way, they all seem so average, humdrum. Don’t despair, there are enough of the right ingredients to propel one onto the next one and then the following and so on.
The book reads very fast, before you realize it, you are at the last and longest story, Shirley from a Small Place which acts like a summation of the theme of the collection. A story about being rooted, not forgetting where you came from, an overbearing mother, which seems to be a common trait of Jamaican moms and savoring the culture through memory, pride and food. Thanks to Netgalley and Ballantine Books for an advanced DRC. Book will be published on July 24, 2018.
The book starts off strong with a tale about a budding friendship in College. Although Kimberley and Cecilia are both Jamaican, they have had quite different experiences hailing from up Jamaica with one more rooted in her heritage and Cecelia seemingly trying to leave hers behind. This conflict typifies immigrants and the quest to assimilate a little, a lot, or not at all.
A heated exchange between Kimberley and Cecilia:
“You came across as the eternally offended black woman.”
“That’s because we are eternally being disrespected.”
Cecilia was shaking her head at me.
“Black people like you don’t have to think about race as much as the rest of us do.”
Unfortunately the rest of the book doesn’t maintain this promising momentum. And the failure to keep pace with this initial story is disappointing. The stories aren’t bad, just not remarkable in any way, they all seem so average, humdrum. Don’t despair, there are enough of the right ingredients to propel one onto the next one and then the following and so on.
The book reads very fast, before you realize it, you are at the last and longest story, Shirley from a Small Place which acts like a summation of the theme of the collection. A story about being rooted, not forgetting where you came from, an overbearing mother, which seems to be a common trait of Jamaican moms and savoring the culture through memory, pride and food. Thanks to Netgalley and Ballantine Books for an advanced DRC. Book will be published on July 24, 2018.
May 2, 2018
I heard about this collection of stories at the end of last year and knew it was going to be something special. If you are of Jamaican (or even Caribbean) heritage you will feel a sense of familiarity with the stories being told.
Even though the stories aren’t linked (or meant to be?) reoccurring themes popped up - (1) relationships between mothers and daughters - obedience and rebellion, (2) migration and the (incorrect?) perception that leaving JA affords people with better opportunities, (3) the realisation that there is no ‘perfect’ love - sometimes we settle but ultimately we do what we think will make us content, (4) loss and grief, and (5) mermaids!
Standout stories for me: ‘Slack’, ‘Mermaid River’, ‘Shirley from a Small Place’, ‘We Eat Our Daughters’ and ‘Bad Behaviour’.
Even though the stories aren’t linked (or meant to be?) reoccurring themes popped up - (1) relationships between mothers and daughters - obedience and rebellion, (2) migration and the (incorrect?) perception that leaving JA affords people with better opportunities, (3) the realisation that there is no ‘perfect’ love - sometimes we settle but ultimately we do what we think will make us content, (4) loss and grief, and (5) mermaids!
Standout stories for me: ‘Slack’, ‘Mermaid River’, ‘Shirley from a Small Place’, ‘We Eat Our Daughters’ and ‘Bad Behaviour’.
June 5, 2022
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3 ¼ stars
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. Many of her stories hone in on familial relationships, depicting the misunderstandings and differences between Jamaican-American children and their Jamaican parents. While the parents are often shown to be more traditional than their children and are vocal in their disapproval of their lifestyles, their professions, their sexuality, their 'Americaness', Arthurs allows them to be dimensional individuals, without resorting to one-dimensional stereotypes.
'Light Skinned Girls and Kelly Rowlands', the first story in the collection reminded me of Danielle Evans’ novella, The Office of Historical Corrections. Both stories explore the relationship between two Black women who are unable to bridge the gap created by their different upbringings and financial situations. In 'Bad Behavior' a despairing mother sends her misbehaving teenage daughter back to Jamaica to live with her own mother (the girl’s grandmother). While the stories depict different situations and people they are united by their shared themes (of acceptance, guilt, self-divide). Within these 11 stories, Arthurs underlines the difficulties experienced by those who are dealing with family expectations and pressures or living in predominantly white spaces or feeling torn between Jamaican and American customs & cultures.
I appreciated and could relate to the nostalgia and homesickness that affects many of these characters and how sometimes they view their ‘new’, in this case, American, environment as ‘alien’.
Easily, my favourite was 'Island'. This isn’t all that surprising as it follows a lesbian who has become more and more aware of how her best friends are visibly uneasy at any mention or confirmation of her sexuality. It was sad but this particular story really spoke to me.
While I loved the author’s breezy prose, the authentic flow of her dialogues, her rich examination of Jamaican and Jamaican-American identities (the stories follow people who are united by their heritage but are ultimately living very different lives) as well as her realistic explorations of parenthood, siblinghood, and queerness, only two or three stories really stood out to me. This is one of the cases where less would have been more (to me, of course). I would have found this to be a stronger debut had it had fewer but longer stories. Nevertheless, this was a solid collection with some real hits. If you enjoyed Zalika Reid-Benta's Frying Plantain or you are a fan of Danielle Evans' short stories. I look forward to whatever Arthurs publishes next.
3 ¼ stars
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. Many of her stories hone in on familial relationships, depicting the misunderstandings and differences between Jamaican-American children and their Jamaican parents. While the parents are often shown to be more traditional than their children and are vocal in their disapproval of their lifestyles, their professions, their sexuality, their 'Americaness', Arthurs allows them to be dimensional individuals, without resorting to one-dimensional stereotypes.
'Light Skinned Girls and Kelly Rowlands', the first story in the collection reminded me of Danielle Evans’ novella, The Office of Historical Corrections. Both stories explore the relationship between two Black women who are unable to bridge the gap created by their different upbringings and financial situations. In 'Bad Behavior' a despairing mother sends her misbehaving teenage daughter back to Jamaica to live with her own mother (the girl’s grandmother). While the stories depict different situations and people they are united by their shared themes (of acceptance, guilt, self-divide). Within these 11 stories, Arthurs underlines the difficulties experienced by those who are dealing with family expectations and pressures or living in predominantly white spaces or feeling torn between Jamaican and American customs & cultures.
I appreciated and could relate to the nostalgia and homesickness that affects many of these characters and how sometimes they view their ‘new’, in this case, American, environment as ‘alien’.
Easily, my favourite was 'Island'. This isn’t all that surprising as it follows a lesbian who has become more and more aware of how her best friends are visibly uneasy at any mention or confirmation of her sexuality. It was sad but this particular story really spoke to me.
While I loved the author’s breezy prose, the authentic flow of her dialogues, her rich examination of Jamaican and Jamaican-American identities (the stories follow people who are united by their heritage but are ultimately living very different lives) as well as her realistic explorations of parenthood, siblinghood, and queerness, only two or three stories really stood out to me. This is one of the cases where less would have been more (to me, of course). I would have found this to be a stronger debut had it had fewer but longer stories. Nevertheless, this was a solid collection with some real hits. If you enjoyed Zalika Reid-Benta's Frying Plantain or you are a fan of Danielle Evans' short stories. I look forward to whatever Arthurs publishes next.
March 13, 2019
I was excited to see that this was written in part in vernacular. J. California Cooper is one of my favorite authors and I also enjoyed Marlon James' work. How to Love a Jamaican begins with an exchange between two college women, Kimberly and Cecilia. Both are of Jamaican descent but one is American raised. Their different views about race particularly those on interracial relationships and colorism within the black community are the focus in the first short story Light-Skinned Girls and Kelly Rowlands. The short story collection ends with the tale of a young Jamaican woman who has achieved success in the American music industry but has lost her way, dipping into depression as she assimilates into American culture. Throughout How to Love A Jamaican the common thread which can be easily gathered by the title is the challenge faced by Jamaican immigrants upon reaching our shores. Many of the stories are based in the Midwest and show how immigrants cling to their communities here in the United States while also still yearning for home. A lot of the stories seem to be woven together. Mermaids make an appearance in the tragedy Slack and then reappear again in Mermaid River and Shirley From a Small Place. The idea of a young girl being sent home to her family in Jamaica so she can be "straightened out" is also a recurring theme. Perhaps the biggest thread throughout all of these stories is that of a strong, if at times overbearing mother, who wants the best for her child but loves hard and carries her own baggage. How to Love a Jamaican is Alexia Arthurs's debut work.
June 21, 2018
"How to Love A Jamaican" is not difficult at all, if you just listen 4 stars for various perspectives of life, love, and family set on an island only seen for its shallow vacation fare and ganga, when complex nuances coat the green isle.
Favorite Story: We Eat Our Daughters
*I received this tale from NetGalley in exchange for an unbiased review*
Favorite Story: We Eat Our Daughters
*I received this tale from NetGalley in exchange for an unbiased review*
July 8, 2018
Alexia Arthur’s How to Love a Jamaican is her debut short story collection. Read in order, Arthur’s stories develop, expand, and mature as the reader progresses through the collection. The stories are related rather than linked, each a varying combination of several themes that make this an especially cohesive short story collection. No surprise, given the volume’s title, the stories all deal with Jamaicans—the volume is dedicated “for Jamaicans.” The Jamaicans of Arthur’s stories start out as schoolgirls in “Slack” and “Bad Behavior”; as college students in “Light-Skinned Girls and Kelly Rowlands,” “Mash Up Love,” “The Ghost of Jia Yi,” and “Mermaid River”; and move to women perhaps in their mid- to late 20s as in “Island.” Later in the collection, the Jamaicans are fully adult, as in “Shirley from a Small Place,“ “How to Love a Jamaican,” and “On Shelf.”
Arthur’s characters are pulled between Jamaican and American culture, between life in rural Jamaica and life in the urban U.S., and between older and younger generations. Some see their sexuality developing, others are conflicted by their sexual identities. Arthur’s stories are sweet, loving, and nostalgic without being saccharine, full of everyday life and full of loving and yearning for family, place, and culture. While the immigrant experience portrayed in How to Love a Jamaican is specific to Jamaicans in the U.S., Arthur in fact portrays a more universal immigrant experience of both fear and eagerness to lose and modify identities.
It’s difficult to choose favorites among Arthur’s stories, since all contain beauty and strengths. “Light-Skinned Girls and Kelly Rowlands,” the very first story, artfully deals with race, class, and color of two college students, one Jamaican-born, one U.S.-born of Jamaican-born parents. It’s narrated by Kimberly, who lives with her mother, and reveals her burgeoning friendship with Cecilia, which ”isn’t the kind of name that brings to mind a black girl, and that day when she spoke, telling us that she was from California, her voice reminded me of all those blonde white girls on reality television, confirming that, as I suspected, she was a white girl trapped in a black girl’s body”. As Kimberly tells us, ”Cecilia was the kind of black girl who didn’t think about her race as much as I did.” Kimberly and Cecilia bond over their Jamaican mothers, who, as Kimberly says, ”want to eat their daughters”. In Kimberly’s eyes, Cecilia ”was the best friend I’d always wanted”, ”honest in the way a white girl was honest”, yet separated from Kimberly by her thorough American-ness. Yet, ultimately, in a painful yet perhaps predictable conclusion, the story ends with a confrontation, with Kimberly telling Cecilia: But one question remains: Where on West Seventy-second?
“How to Love a Jamaican” is another stand-out story in a volume of stand-outs. Told in the first person, it recounts a return visit to Jamaica of a middle-aged man and his beloved wife and his beloved three children. The story is highly nuanced and surprising, lovely and thought-provoking.
Alexia Arthur’s How to Love a Jamaican is a fine short story collection for any writer, let alone for a debut collection. The stories build upon each other throughout the volume, riffing on the same themes, without repeating. Arthur builds upon her characters’ emotions, and expands the reader’s understanding of just what she’s trying to convey in her stories. Arthur’s stories and her writing are full of grace and good will. I am eager to read Alexia Arthur’s next fiction.
I would like to thank NetGalley and Random House for providing me with an advanced reading e-copy of How to Love a Jamaican in exchange for this honest review.
Fuly deserving of four stars.
Arthur’s characters are pulled between Jamaican and American culture, between life in rural Jamaica and life in the urban U.S., and between older and younger generations. Some see their sexuality developing, others are conflicted by their sexual identities. Arthur’s stories are sweet, loving, and nostalgic without being saccharine, full of everyday life and full of loving and yearning for family, place, and culture. While the immigrant experience portrayed in How to Love a Jamaican is specific to Jamaicans in the U.S., Arthur in fact portrays a more universal immigrant experience of both fear and eagerness to lose and modify identities.
It’s difficult to choose favorites among Arthur’s stories, since all contain beauty and strengths. “Light-Skinned Girls and Kelly Rowlands,” the very first story, artfully deals with race, class, and color of two college students, one Jamaican-born, one U.S.-born of Jamaican-born parents. It’s narrated by Kimberly, who lives with her mother, and reveals her burgeoning friendship with Cecilia, which ”isn’t the kind of name that brings to mind a black girl, and that day when she spoke, telling us that she was from California, her voice reminded me of all those blonde white girls on reality television, confirming that, as I suspected, she was a white girl trapped in a black girl’s body”. As Kimberly tells us, ”Cecilia was the kind of black girl who didn’t think about her race as much as I did.” Kimberly and Cecilia bond over their Jamaican mothers, who, as Kimberly says, ”want to eat their daughters”. In Kimberly’s eyes, Cecilia ”was the best friend I’d always wanted”, ”honest in the way a white girl was honest”, yet separated from Kimberly by her thorough American-ness. Yet, ultimately, in a painful yet perhaps predictable conclusion, the story ends with a confrontation, with Kimberly telling Cecilia: But one question remains: Where on West Seventy-second?
“How to Love a Jamaican” is another stand-out story in a volume of stand-outs. Told in the first person, it recounts a return visit to Jamaica of a middle-aged man and his beloved wife and his beloved three children. The story is highly nuanced and surprising, lovely and thought-provoking.
Alexia Arthur’s How to Love a Jamaican is a fine short story collection for any writer, let alone for a debut collection. The stories build upon each other throughout the volume, riffing on the same themes, without repeating. Arthur builds upon her characters’ emotions, and expands the reader’s understanding of just what she’s trying to convey in her stories. Arthur’s stories and her writing are full of grace and good will. I am eager to read Alexia Arthur’s next fiction.
I would like to thank NetGalley and Random House for providing me with an advanced reading e-copy of How to Love a Jamaican in exchange for this honest review.
Fuly deserving of four stars.
August 10, 2018
4.75 -- Reading How to Love a Jamaican was a salve that teated the hole I feel, since my Jamaican mother passed away 3 months ago. The foods, the patois, the religious communities, the loneliness, the gendered beliefs about sexuality and romance -- all of it -- ached with truth. These truths made me laugh as well, when I recognized dialogue that echoed verbatim what my mother or father (also from Jamaica) said to me.
Like Cecilia in the opening story "Light-skinned Girls and Kelly Rowlands", I have not spent much time in Jamaica. Unlike Cecilia's regard for Jamaica as a tourist destination, despite her parent's Jamaican upbringing, I visited rarely because my family couldn't afford to travel. only twice. Nevertheless, the "Jamerican" whom every asks, "Where are you from from", is a position I lived. And Arthur depicts the loneliness, the awkwardness, the longing that how her Jamaican or Jamaican American present to the world match the ancestry they carry on their bodies.
I compared Alexia Arthurs' vibrant characters to my thrilling first encounter with Caribbean legendary author Jamaica Kincaid's short stories. In fact, HTLAJ's final story, "Shirley from A Small Place" attests that Kincaid's style and honesty influenced Ms. Arthurs.
Now that I've finished the collection, I see where the two authors diverge. The sum of stories don't cohere well for me, only because I note the same character background detail repeats. For example - Jamaican migrates to Iowa in order to pursue her PhD. Pursuing the Ph.D. or Iowa on their own isn't my quibble. It's that this phenomonon occurs in Indiana, Ohio, Missouri, and other midwest and plains states where universities aggressively recruit international students, and then the primarily white communities that lack cultural diversity create isolating alienating conditions for these students.
Or tics such a when multiple characters use only one Jamaican slang word to describe promiscuous women "slack". The word is accurate, but isn't the only one, regardless of its regional specificity -- if say, the word is popular in one Jamaican city ("Mandeville"), once migrants gather together in communities, language circulates among them.*
I share a fun story to wrap up this comment. I showed my Dad this book, and said it would sweet him.
Jokingly, I asked: "Why do Jamaicans give their children such weighty names, like... Glenroy" (See
Dad smiled with recognition. Said he knew a few Glenroys as a child.
Then in pretend outrage, I told him "This mother named her twins Jacob and Esau. Why would you DO that to your children"
He laughed and laughed, doubled over in laughter. "She nuh easy." He's a devout Christian and hardly reads any fiction, prefers the Bible and devotional texts. We bonded over details over this book, which is the best gift of all.
*I must revise and expand this argument with better and more examples, such as Adventists functions as default short hand for religiously devout, even though pentacostal, Jehovah's Witnesses, and other fundamentalist churches took hold in Jamaica. Canarisie, Brooklyn is a Jamaican migrant enclave, but so were Crown Heights and East New York, areas of Long Island, Queens, and Harlem.
To come a review on its
Like Cecilia in the opening story "Light-skinned Girls and Kelly Rowlands", I have not spent much time in Jamaica. Unlike Cecilia's regard for Jamaica as a tourist destination, despite her parent's Jamaican upbringing, I visited rarely because my family couldn't afford to travel. only twice. Nevertheless, the "Jamerican" whom every asks, "Where are you from from", is a position I lived. And Arthur depicts the loneliness, the awkwardness, the longing that how her Jamaican or Jamaican American present to the world match the ancestry they carry on their bodies.
I compared Alexia Arthurs' vibrant characters to my thrilling first encounter with Caribbean legendary author Jamaica Kincaid's short stories. In fact, HTLAJ's final story, "Shirley from A Small Place" attests that Kincaid's style and honesty influenced Ms. Arthurs.
Now that I've finished the collection, I see where the two authors diverge. The sum of stories don't cohere well for me, only because I note the same character background detail repeats. For example - Jamaican migrates to Iowa in order to pursue her PhD. Pursuing the Ph.D. or Iowa on their own isn't my quibble. It's that this phenomonon occurs in Indiana, Ohio, Missouri, and other midwest and plains states where universities aggressively recruit international students, and then the primarily white communities that lack cultural diversity create isolating alienating conditions for these students.
Or tics such a when multiple characters use only one Jamaican slang word to describe promiscuous women "slack". The word is accurate, but isn't the only one, regardless of its regional specificity -- if say, the word is popular in one Jamaican city ("Mandeville"), once migrants gather together in communities, language circulates among them.*
I share a fun story to wrap up this comment. I showed my Dad this book, and said it would sweet him.
Jokingly, I asked: "Why do Jamaicans give their children such weighty names, like... Glenroy" (See
Dad smiled with recognition. Said he knew a few Glenroys as a child.
Then in pretend outrage, I told him "This mother named her twins Jacob and Esau. Why would you DO that to your children"
He laughed and laughed, doubled over in laughter. "She nuh easy." He's a devout Christian and hardly reads any fiction, prefers the Bible and devotional texts. We bonded over details over this book, which is the best gift of all.
*I must revise and expand this argument with better and more examples, such as Adventists functions as default short hand for religiously devout, even though pentacostal, Jehovah's Witnesses, and other fundamentalist churches took hold in Jamaica. Canarisie, Brooklyn is a Jamaican migrant enclave, but so were Crown Heights and East New York, areas of Long Island, Queens, and Harlem.
To come a review on its
August 9, 2018
It’s fitting that Alexia Arthurs’ debut collection of stories has an epigraph from Kei Miller who writes so compellingly and inventively about national/racial Jamaican identity. In particular, his writing is often concerned with perception, self-perception and storytelling traditions. Arthurs’ lively and invigorating short stories engage with similar ideas through the diverse perspectives and tales of many different individuals. These men and women have moved from Jamaica to America or moved back to Jamaica after living in America or are first generation Americans with Jamaican ancestry. Many of these individuals feel a tension in being caught between these two nations. Their values, desires and goals have been gradually modified having lived within both cultures and this naturally makes the characters question where they fit within either country and how they interact with different communities. Arthurs depicts a wide range of points of view from the intimate thoughts of a college girl to an elderly man who holds a longstanding secret to a resentful twin brother to a lesbian who returns to Jamaica for a friend’s wedding to a pop star preoccupied with the sudden death of one of her dancers. In skilfully depicting a rich plurality of voices Arthurs raises challenging questions about how we define ourselves and the assumptions we make about others.
Read my full review of How to Love a Jamaican by Alexia Arthurs on LonesomeReader
Read my full review of How to Love a Jamaican by Alexia Arthurs on LonesomeReader
August 3, 2018
As a Jamaican descendent - I related to every story in this book. I swear it hit me on soooo many levels. From all the duppy know who fi frighten stories to the girl child who gets tek weh by grown man stories to all the stories of being a new face in a new place trying to find camaraderie in new environments with only a few people who look like you, to all the stories of casual relationships and all the stories dripping in the complications of a culture that's heavily focused on ambition, pride, shame, guilt, confusion, hilarity and home-baked ideals that may mean well but that are legitimately just madness; I related to it all. It was nice to see that her book was "dedicated to Jamaicans" - because you could tell.
It's a book that I'm going to share with my mother for sure. I feel like as a woman who was born and raised in Jamaica, before emigrating to Canada at 19, she'd really enjoy these stories.
I REALLY enjoyed the fact that author Alexia Arthurs translated purely Jamaican experiences for the mainstream. She really illustrated how similar these experiences are to ones that other cultures may experience while highlighting the distinctly Jamaican approach to things which in my opinion is specifically rooted in mindset.
I love how How to Love a Jamaican covered so many facets of love and family interactions. She tells stories about the familial love that men feel towards their matriarchial guardians whether it be their grandmothers who raised them or their actual mothers who tried to instill principles in their lives but failed to recognize them in other ways. She told stories about the painful process of coming out (or not coming out) as gay and lesbian that many Jamaicans face due to the deeply-entrenched homophobia in our culture.
I appreciate how Alexia covered interracial love, dating, and marriage - not just from the viewpoint of Jamaican men and white women but also examining the relationships between Jamaican women and white men and what that looks like in that translated in their communities and the emotional elements that arise from that.
It's breathtaking when someone can really get a grip on the various levels of a topic and not lose anything relating to the depiction of the characters or their emotional goals, it's not watered down at any point. I like that she dived into all the intersections of love - self-love, ambition, love in-relation to pride and what it means to have fulfillment and maintain relationships with some who may be more ignorant or closed minded than you. I remember having conversations with my Jamaican parents about so many different subjects: feminism, homosexuality, god and punishment and trying to break them out of adverse mindsets that they seem hell-bent on carrying. It always feels like you have to pick your battles and like you're fighting million-year-old ideals from the beginning of time. How to Love a Jamaican really jumps into conversations that are like the new world vs the old world and it makes me want to share it that much more.
Lastly, I applaud Alexia Arthurs for how much insight and character development she put into all her female characters. She crafted such insightful viewpoints into why people, especially women, act the way they do and how people, especially women, could come to certain conclusions about life based on what they are told and what they have seen versus what they want for themselves as individuals inside and outside of their country and families. I loved the last story immensely describing the experience of a pop star who very very VERY closely resembles a huge megastar we all know and love who's not from Jamaica but who's story could mirror and translate to many of the experiences that many of our extremely famous exports have experienced as well.
How to Love a Jamaican was super lit! It was so nice and so refreshing to experience representation in this way -it captured something that will translate to other cultures. I've always believed that Jamaica is a portal to understanding the world and its complexities and I feel that once you read this - you'll feel the same.
It's a book that I'm going to share with my mother for sure. I feel like as a woman who was born and raised in Jamaica, before emigrating to Canada at 19, she'd really enjoy these stories.
I REALLY enjoyed the fact that author Alexia Arthurs translated purely Jamaican experiences for the mainstream. She really illustrated how similar these experiences are to ones that other cultures may experience while highlighting the distinctly Jamaican approach to things which in my opinion is specifically rooted in mindset.
I love how How to Love a Jamaican covered so many facets of love and family interactions. She tells stories about the familial love that men feel towards their matriarchial guardians whether it be their grandmothers who raised them or their actual mothers who tried to instill principles in their lives but failed to recognize them in other ways. She told stories about the painful process of coming out (or not coming out) as gay and lesbian that many Jamaicans face due to the deeply-entrenched homophobia in our culture.
I appreciate how Alexia covered interracial love, dating, and marriage - not just from the viewpoint of Jamaican men and white women but also examining the relationships between Jamaican women and white men and what that looks like in that translated in their communities and the emotional elements that arise from that.
It's breathtaking when someone can really get a grip on the various levels of a topic and not lose anything relating to the depiction of the characters or their emotional goals, it's not watered down at any point. I like that she dived into all the intersections of love - self-love, ambition, love in-relation to pride and what it means to have fulfillment and maintain relationships with some who may be more ignorant or closed minded than you. I remember having conversations with my Jamaican parents about so many different subjects: feminism, homosexuality, god and punishment and trying to break them out of adverse mindsets that they seem hell-bent on carrying. It always feels like you have to pick your battles and like you're fighting million-year-old ideals from the beginning of time. How to Love a Jamaican really jumps into conversations that are like the new world vs the old world and it makes me want to share it that much more.
Lastly, I applaud Alexia Arthurs for how much insight and character development she put into all her female characters. She crafted such insightful viewpoints into why people, especially women, act the way they do and how people, especially women, could come to certain conclusions about life based on what they are told and what they have seen versus what they want for themselves as individuals inside and outside of their country and families. I loved the last story immensely describing the experience of a pop star who very very VERY closely resembles a huge megastar we all know and love who's not from Jamaica but who's story could mirror and translate to many of the experiences that many of our extremely famous exports have experienced as well.
How to Love a Jamaican was super lit! It was so nice and so refreshing to experience representation in this way -it captured something that will translate to other cultures. I've always believed that Jamaica is a portal to understanding the world and its complexities and I feel that once you read this - you'll feel the same.
August 28, 2018
By far one of my favorite short story reads this year! I really enjoyed this book and highly recommend it.
October 8, 2018
This review originally appeared on the book review blog: Just One More Pa(i)ge.
I received this book as an ARC from NetGalley back in April, and am a little ashamed to say that it took me this long to get to it. Honestly, I completely drawn to the collection when I originally requested it, and was psyched when I was approved to receive it. And then, for some reason, I kept talking myself into reading other books first. Maybe because it was a short story collection and those are not always my favorite. But like I said, I was immediately into it when I first saw it, so who knows? Regardless, when it began making the rounds on social media with its recent official publication, I knew it was time to stop putting it off. And then, when we lost electricity for a little bit during Hurricane Florence a little over a week ago (which was really not bad at all for me, where I live in central NC, though my thoughts are with the parts of the state that were not so lucky), I knew it was a sign. If you aren’t sure how those things are connected: NetGalley does eARCs, so you have to read on a Kindle or other device, which is not my favorite format, but I was all charged up and ready to go in preparation for the likely loss of electricity. And thus…here we are.
For all that I put off starting this, I powered through it so fast; read it in less than a week and really enjoyed it. Overall, it was a fascinating glimpse into Jamaican (and a little bit, general Caribbean) life, culture, language and beliefs from a great variety of perspectives, experiences and relationships with the island. From frustration to nostalgia, lifelong residents to vacation visitors, Arthurs paints an incredibly vivid image of Jamaica. Knowing that the author herself is Jamaican, grew up partially there and partially in the United States, this book felt, to me, like an exploration of all the paths her life (and the lives of people she knows) *could* have taken…and some, perhaps, that it did take. That may not actually be accurate at all, but it’s what reading these stories felt like to me. And I was into it. One other general thing I want to mention is that I liked the idea of the mermaid theming throughout the collection, but in the end, it fell a little flat to me. It needed to be either more present, or less so, but the in between that it hit was not the right spot. On the other hand, I loved the mother-daughter dynamics represented throughout - they were complex and thorough, foreign yet familiar, and entirely authentic.
And now, as always for my collection reviews, I’ll give a little snippet of thought on each short story:
Light Skinned Girls and Kelly Rowland: This was an interesting look at differences within a race, based on upbringing and background (just as with any people), and how that plays out/the strife it can cause…even though the root issue is something beyond the control, decided on years ago and by other people, of those who are actual involved. It is particularly insightful and educational for those of other races, so, me. A really straightforward but wonderfully meaningful story to start the collection.
Mash Up Love: Ahhhhh the age-old saga of sibling rivalry. This was basically on theme with the idea of the prodigal son. Well written, but nothing special.
Slack: Wow. The little details are what make this one, the way you get just enough background to see how each little moment played together to lead, inevitably, to creating the moment of tragedy. And the seduction of the idea of mermaids, especially for imaginative youth, is used so well here.
Bad Behavior: A lovely and quick meditation on motherhood, the relationships between grandmother/mother/daughter/granddaughter, and the way reactions to each change the course of interactions for the others.
Island: Yes. Just yes. I loved the themes of this story, the feelings it conveyed. Also, I just get really absorbed into discussions of and emotions around sexuality (the realization and self-discovery of) and coming out. This one is particularly interesting as it addresses these themes within the very strict and specific Jamaican culture.
Mermaid River: Such a sweet story about the memories of a boy and his grandmother. The color of nosetalgia here is strong and permeating - it makes you stop and think back on your own moments with your own grandparents. And there is a wonderful little message about how even small and oft overlooked places are chock full of so much life.
The Ghost of Jia Yi: This is definitely one of the most layered stories in the collection. Exploring a girl far from home and depressed, dealing with being an outsider and making questionable decisions that haunt her because of it…and looking at it all through the lens of another foreigner as an incarnation of what could happen to her as a result (even though all those” bad” decisions are really just normal decisions for a person her age, but the consequences and expectations seem, and truly are, so much higher for her). I really felt a vibe from this story, deep and vibrating, that I hadn’t felt from another story in the collection to here and I liked it. Also, those last lines are really affecting.
How to Love a Jamaican: I don’t know how I felt about this one. I mean, I liked the reading of it. And the theme of “this is all one needs to be happy,” but then not being fully satisfied with it, and possibly ruining it, even after finding it…that’s universal and well rendered here. But to read it this way, in such a large secret between a long-settled couple - it hurts me to imagine it happening to me, is all. This is a perfectly told tale of that situation though.
On Shelf: Whoa that was depressing. This was like a one-stop shop for all the possible judgement a women could get for her choices: education/work over family, late/no marriage or children, having standards for a partner that are “too high,” and more. And then when she caves, choosing someone for no better reason than she feels like her clock is ticking (someone that she’s not actually interested in and can’t share her full self with and definitely doesn’t love and who isn’t honest with her at all)…it almost physically hurt me. And thought I guess it’s ok for her, in the end, because she feels that the daughter the situation gave her was worth it…it was just a depressing story to read.
We Eat Our Daughters: Loved this collection of vignettes on mother-daughter relationships. They explore issues and pressures that are specific to Jamaican culture but are also, achingly, universally recognizable.
Shirley from a Small Place: Just a really well developed look at the idea of yearning for a place and time when things were “worse,” even though you’ve “made it.” It really speaks to the power of memory and nostalgia. And again, this is one with a great depiction of a mother-daughter relationship.
Chock full of cultural insight, capable writing and at least one mother-daughter relationship that you are sure to identify with (that is, if you have even been a mother or daughter yourself), this is a great debut collection. Incredibly solid short stories across the board that, though I do have some favorites, do not fall into the trap of a few star stories mixed with a number of duds. Thematically on point throughout, I look forward to seeing what Arthurs writes next.
I received this book as an ARC from NetGalley back in April, and am a little ashamed to say that it took me this long to get to it. Honestly, I completely drawn to the collection when I originally requested it, and was psyched when I was approved to receive it. And then, for some reason, I kept talking myself into reading other books first. Maybe because it was a short story collection and those are not always my favorite. But like I said, I was immediately into it when I first saw it, so who knows? Regardless, when it began making the rounds on social media with its recent official publication, I knew it was time to stop putting it off. And then, when we lost electricity for a little bit during Hurricane Florence a little over a week ago (which was really not bad at all for me, where I live in central NC, though my thoughts are with the parts of the state that were not so lucky), I knew it was a sign. If you aren’t sure how those things are connected: NetGalley does eARCs, so you have to read on a Kindle or other device, which is not my favorite format, but I was all charged up and ready to go in preparation for the likely loss of electricity. And thus…here we are.
For all that I put off starting this, I powered through it so fast; read it in less than a week and really enjoyed it. Overall, it was a fascinating glimpse into Jamaican (and a little bit, general Caribbean) life, culture, language and beliefs from a great variety of perspectives, experiences and relationships with the island. From frustration to nostalgia, lifelong residents to vacation visitors, Arthurs paints an incredibly vivid image of Jamaica. Knowing that the author herself is Jamaican, grew up partially there and partially in the United States, this book felt, to me, like an exploration of all the paths her life (and the lives of people she knows) *could* have taken…and some, perhaps, that it did take. That may not actually be accurate at all, but it’s what reading these stories felt like to me. And I was into it. One other general thing I want to mention is that I liked the idea of the mermaid theming throughout the collection, but in the end, it fell a little flat to me. It needed to be either more present, or less so, but the in between that it hit was not the right spot. On the other hand, I loved the mother-daughter dynamics represented throughout - they were complex and thorough, foreign yet familiar, and entirely authentic.
And now, as always for my collection reviews, I’ll give a little snippet of thought on each short story:
Light Skinned Girls and Kelly Rowland: This was an interesting look at differences within a race, based on upbringing and background (just as with any people), and how that plays out/the strife it can cause…even though the root issue is something beyond the control, decided on years ago and by other people, of those who are actual involved. It is particularly insightful and educational for those of other races, so, me. A really straightforward but wonderfully meaningful story to start the collection.
Mash Up Love: Ahhhhh the age-old saga of sibling rivalry. This was basically on theme with the idea of the prodigal son. Well written, but nothing special.
Slack: Wow. The little details are what make this one, the way you get just enough background to see how each little moment played together to lead, inevitably, to creating the moment of tragedy. And the seduction of the idea of mermaids, especially for imaginative youth, is used so well here.
Bad Behavior: A lovely and quick meditation on motherhood, the relationships between grandmother/mother/daughter/granddaughter, and the way reactions to each change the course of interactions for the others.
Island: Yes. Just yes. I loved the themes of this story, the feelings it conveyed. Also, I just get really absorbed into discussions of and emotions around sexuality (the realization and self-discovery of) and coming out. This one is particularly interesting as it addresses these themes within the very strict and specific Jamaican culture.
Mermaid River: Such a sweet story about the memories of a boy and his grandmother. The color of nosetalgia here is strong and permeating - it makes you stop and think back on your own moments with your own grandparents. And there is a wonderful little message about how even small and oft overlooked places are chock full of so much life.
The Ghost of Jia Yi: This is definitely one of the most layered stories in the collection. Exploring a girl far from home and depressed, dealing with being an outsider and making questionable decisions that haunt her because of it…and looking at it all through the lens of another foreigner as an incarnation of what could happen to her as a result (even though all those” bad” decisions are really just normal decisions for a person her age, but the consequences and expectations seem, and truly are, so much higher for her). I really felt a vibe from this story, deep and vibrating, that I hadn’t felt from another story in the collection to here and I liked it. Also, those last lines are really affecting.
How to Love a Jamaican: I don’t know how I felt about this one. I mean, I liked the reading of it. And the theme of “this is all one needs to be happy,” but then not being fully satisfied with it, and possibly ruining it, even after finding it…that’s universal and well rendered here. But to read it this way, in such a large secret between a long-settled couple - it hurts me to imagine it happening to me, is all. This is a perfectly told tale of that situation though.
On Shelf: Whoa that was depressing. This was like a one-stop shop for all the possible judgement a women could get for her choices: education/work over family, late/no marriage or children, having standards for a partner that are “too high,” and more. And then when she caves, choosing someone for no better reason than she feels like her clock is ticking (someone that she’s not actually interested in and can’t share her full self with and definitely doesn’t love and who isn’t honest with her at all)…it almost physically hurt me. And thought I guess it’s ok for her, in the end, because she feels that the daughter the situation gave her was worth it…it was just a depressing story to read.
We Eat Our Daughters: Loved this collection of vignettes on mother-daughter relationships. They explore issues and pressures that are specific to Jamaican culture but are also, achingly, universally recognizable.
Shirley from a Small Place: Just a really well developed look at the idea of yearning for a place and time when things were “worse,” even though you’ve “made it.” It really speaks to the power of memory and nostalgia. And again, this is one with a great depiction of a mother-daughter relationship.
Chock full of cultural insight, capable writing and at least one mother-daughter relationship that you are sure to identify with (that is, if you have even been a mother or daughter yourself), this is a great debut collection. Incredibly solid short stories across the board that, though I do have some favorites, do not fall into the trap of a few star stories mixed with a number of duds. Thematically on point throughout, I look forward to seeing what Arthurs writes next.
July 3, 2018
I don’t read many short story collections. Since starting my blog how many years ago, this is the second short story collection I’ve read. The first one being Things We Lost in the Fire, an unsettling collection of thrilling, gothic stories by Argentine writer Mariana Enriquez, which I read last year and enjoyed.
I’ve always assumed that I wouldn’t like short stories because of their short length. But reading these two collections have proven how wrong I was. Sure, there are a few stories that are so engrossing that I wished they were longer, but now I see short stories as a way to sample a writer’s style before committing to a longer work by them and great for when I’m between books but don’t want to commit to anything hefty.
How to Love a Jamaican was easy to get into and relate to. I’d say it’s contemporary literary fiction and the stories are told from either a first-person or third-person omniscient point of view. The stories are all character driven and give a great sense of depth to the characters.
I was drawn to the book because of its title and didn’t really expect it to be about Jamaica or Jamaicans but was glad that it is. Though the characters are all connected to Jamaica in some way, the stories are about modern human experiences and in that way, all who read the stories, no matter their background, can relate to them in some way.
It was the characters that kept me reading. Yes, the book is composed of different stories none of which contains the same characters, but, after a few stories in, I realized that the stories will all focus on how a particular event or character causes the protagonist to change their perception. I became more interested in seeing who the protagonist will be or how the protagonist will choose to see by the story’s end.
Character-driven stories are my favorite because of how introspective they are, which made me like many of Arthurs’s stories in this collection. But the ones that stood out to me I loved because they bring back Jamaica strongly to my mind and made me go off in daydreams where I reminisce about my childhood and summers spent there.
It’s not that Arthurs describes the island and its people in detail — her writing isn’t very descriptive, — but that she includes little phrases like “mawga foot man” that are uniquely Jamaican because I and many I know have used such a phrase to describe someone. (Btw, “mawga foot man” means that the man doesn’t portray any sense of strength or capability. It literally means “skinny foot man,” a man with skinny legs.) She even mentions one of my favorite fruits, the Jamaican apple, and even touches on my longing for that fruit, which I haven’t tasted in years (because it’s never in season when I visit Jamaica) and can’t get in the U.S.
The stories touch on many of my struggles as a teen trying to assimilate to an American lifestyle when I moved to the U.S., on the nosiness of my family, on the nosiness of my community in Jamaica, and on the strength of my mother. I could strongly relate to these stories and I loved them for that.
But despite the nostalgia and insight into characters, some things niggled at me. The first being certain words used and how they are spelt, which isn’t a big thing but it really annoyed me. Like “hissed,” as in “she hissed her teeth.” The word annoyed me every time I saw it used in that context because in Jamaica we’d say “she kiss her teeth,” which, in the U.S., means that “she sucked her teeth.” I kept thinking how can a person hiss their teeth? Is that possible? Why wasn’t “suck” used instead?
Another thing that annoyed me was the protagonists’ regard of others. Too often it seemed as if an entire story is only about the protagonist comparing herself to another character to show how better the protagonist’s opinions and way of life is. It seemed petty to me and I didn’t like it. This mostly occurred in the first story, “Light-skinned Girls and Kelly Rowlands,” which I liked, but the constant comparing was annoying (though I should have expected that considering the title). And though this isn’t a big deal, it would have been nice to see at least one positive mother-daughter relationship in the book. They were mostly negative, though the stories do show how strong mothers are and how much they have sacrificed. But despite my complaints, I enjoyed the collection and think it’s pretty decent.
Of the 11 stories, here are my favorites:
“Light-Skinned Girls and Kelly Rowlands” is the first story in the collection and is about a young woman attending NYC who befriends a woman who doesn’t seem to acknowledge the complexities of being Black in America.
“Slack” — about the mother of twins who drowned while playing with dolls in a tank. I like the way it ends by hinting at an unsolved mystery. Maybe the girls didn’t die in the way we are led to believe.
“Bad Behavior” reminded me of all the times my father would threaten my sister and me that he would send us back to Jamaica if we misbehave. The story is about a girl who’s sent to Jamaica to be disciplined by her grandmother but blossoms into a woman there. I like this story because it’s a good piece to use to discuss womanhood, femininity, and raising daughters.
“Mermaid River” is about a boy remembering his childhood in Jamaica and how his grandmother cared for him. I love this one because it made me nostalgic and a bit sad by the end. I also like the structure of story. It jumps back and forth in time in alternating paragraphs, so one paragraph is the present with the boy travelling to school and the other is in the past in Jamaica with his grandmother.
“We Eat Our Daughters” contains four mini stories each from the perspective of four different women who basically talk about how their relationship with their mother affects or has affected their current situation. The story touches on the complex relationship between daughters and mothers and shows that Jamaican (Caribbean) mothers have a strong presence in the lives of their daughters and can be too demanding.
Overall: ★★★☆☆ 1/2
It’s a decent short story collection that I’d recommend to those seeking something contemporary that’s about Caribbean experience, Black experience, Black LGBT experience, and femininity.
As posted on Zezee with Books.
I’ve always assumed that I wouldn’t like short stories because of their short length. But reading these two collections have proven how wrong I was. Sure, there are a few stories that are so engrossing that I wished they were longer, but now I see short stories as a way to sample a writer’s style before committing to a longer work by them and great for when I’m between books but don’t want to commit to anything hefty.
How to Love a Jamaican was easy to get into and relate to. I’d say it’s contemporary literary fiction and the stories are told from either a first-person or third-person omniscient point of view. The stories are all character driven and give a great sense of depth to the characters.
I was drawn to the book because of its title and didn’t really expect it to be about Jamaica or Jamaicans but was glad that it is. Though the characters are all connected to Jamaica in some way, the stories are about modern human experiences and in that way, all who read the stories, no matter their background, can relate to them in some way.
It was the characters that kept me reading. Yes, the book is composed of different stories none of which contains the same characters, but, after a few stories in, I realized that the stories will all focus on how a particular event or character causes the protagonist to change their perception. I became more interested in seeing who the protagonist will be or how the protagonist will choose to see by the story’s end.
Character-driven stories are my favorite because of how introspective they are, which made me like many of Arthurs’s stories in this collection. But the ones that stood out to me I loved because they bring back Jamaica strongly to my mind and made me go off in daydreams where I reminisce about my childhood and summers spent there.
It’s not that Arthurs describes the island and its people in detail — her writing isn’t very descriptive, — but that she includes little phrases like “mawga foot man” that are uniquely Jamaican because I and many I know have used such a phrase to describe someone. (Btw, “mawga foot man” means that the man doesn’t portray any sense of strength or capability. It literally means “skinny foot man,” a man with skinny legs.) She even mentions one of my favorite fruits, the Jamaican apple, and even touches on my longing for that fruit, which I haven’t tasted in years (because it’s never in season when I visit Jamaica) and can’t get in the U.S.
The stories touch on many of my struggles as a teen trying to assimilate to an American lifestyle when I moved to the U.S., on the nosiness of my family, on the nosiness of my community in Jamaica, and on the strength of my mother. I could strongly relate to these stories and I loved them for that.
But despite the nostalgia and insight into characters, some things niggled at me. The first being certain words used and how they are spelt, which isn’t a big thing but it really annoyed me. Like “hissed,” as in “she hissed her teeth.” The word annoyed me every time I saw it used in that context because in Jamaica we’d say “she kiss her teeth,” which, in the U.S., means that “she sucked her teeth.” I kept thinking how can a person hiss their teeth? Is that possible? Why wasn’t “suck” used instead?
Another thing that annoyed me was the protagonists’ regard of others. Too often it seemed as if an entire story is only about the protagonist comparing herself to another character to show how better the protagonist’s opinions and way of life is. It seemed petty to me and I didn’t like it. This mostly occurred in the first story, “Light-skinned Girls and Kelly Rowlands,” which I liked, but the constant comparing was annoying (though I should have expected that considering the title). And though this isn’t a big deal, it would have been nice to see at least one positive mother-daughter relationship in the book. They were mostly negative, though the stories do show how strong mothers are and how much they have sacrificed. But despite my complaints, I enjoyed the collection and think it’s pretty decent.
Of the 11 stories, here are my favorites:
“Light-Skinned Girls and Kelly Rowlands” is the first story in the collection and is about a young woman attending NYC who befriends a woman who doesn’t seem to acknowledge the complexities of being Black in America.
“Slack” — about the mother of twins who drowned while playing with dolls in a tank. I like the way it ends by hinting at an unsolved mystery. Maybe the girls didn’t die in the way we are led to believe.
“Bad Behavior” reminded me of all the times my father would threaten my sister and me that he would send us back to Jamaica if we misbehave. The story is about a girl who’s sent to Jamaica to be disciplined by her grandmother but blossoms into a woman there. I like this story because it’s a good piece to use to discuss womanhood, femininity, and raising daughters.
“Mermaid River” is about a boy remembering his childhood in Jamaica and how his grandmother cared for him. I love this one because it made me nostalgic and a bit sad by the end. I also like the structure of story. It jumps back and forth in time in alternating paragraphs, so one paragraph is the present with the boy travelling to school and the other is in the past in Jamaica with his grandmother.
“We Eat Our Daughters” contains four mini stories each from the perspective of four different women who basically talk about how their relationship with their mother affects or has affected their current situation. The story touches on the complex relationship between daughters and mothers and shows that Jamaican (Caribbean) mothers have a strong presence in the lives of their daughters and can be too demanding.
Overall: ★★★☆☆ 1/2
It’s a decent short story collection that I’d recommend to those seeking something contemporary that’s about Caribbean experience, Black experience, Black LGBT experience, and femininity.
As posted on Zezee with Books.
May 8, 2018
Exceptionally strong collection with a definite focus and some beautiful writing. Most of these stories star young Jamaicans finding new lives in the U.S., usually as students in such places as Iowa and Wisconsin where they have been granted full boat scholarships, many pursue extended degrees. But their ties to their heritage are strong, and the generation preceding this one is presented with affection, their speech lovingly recreated incorporating the melodic patois of their island home. A sprinkling of magic realism surfaces now and then, but not enough to upset the earthiness of the overall book.
May 5, 2019
I really enjoyed this series of short stories focusing on Jamaicans both in Jamaica and America. They are very realistic, relatable, and well written covering numerous themes. The theme that I picked up on is acceptance; acceptance of culture and acceptance of self. This doesn't always go hand in hand and this is what Alexis Arthurs addresses with her stories.
If you like short stories, give this a try. I look forward to see what Arthurs gives us next.
If you like short stories, give this a try. I look forward to see what Arthurs gives us next.
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