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Patsy
When Patsy gets her long-coveted visa to America, it comes after years of yearning to leave Pennyfield, the beautiful but impoverished Jamaican town where she was raised. More than anything, Patsy wishes to be reunited with her oldest friend, Cicely, whose letters arrive from New York steeped in the promise of a happier life and the possible rekindling of their young love. But Patsy’s plans don’t include her overzealous, evangelical mother―or even her five-year-old daughter, Tru.
Beating with the pulse of a long-witheld confession, Patsy gives voice to a woman who looks to America for the opportunity to choose herself first―not to give a better life to her family back home. Patsy leaves Tru behind in a defiant act of self-preservation, hoping for a new start where she can be, and love, whomever she wants. But when Patsy arrives in Brooklyn, America is not as Cicely’s treasured letters described; to survive as an undocumented immigrant, she is forced to work as a bathroom attendant and nanny. Meanwhile, Tru builds a faltering relationship with her father back in Jamaica, grappling with her own questions of identity and sexuality, and trying desperately to empathize with her mother’s decision.
Expertly evoking the jittery streets of New York and the languid rhythms of Jamaica, Patsy weaves between the lives of Patsy and Tru in vignettes spanning more than a decade as mother and daughter ultimately find a way back to one another.
Beating with the pulse of a long-witheld confession, Patsy gives voice to a woman who looks to America for the opportunity to choose herself first―not to give a better life to her family back home. Patsy leaves Tru behind in a defiant act of self-preservation, hoping for a new start where she can be, and love, whomever she wants. But when Patsy arrives in Brooklyn, America is not as Cicely’s treasured letters described; to survive as an undocumented immigrant, she is forced to work as a bathroom attendant and nanny. Meanwhile, Tru builds a faltering relationship with her father back in Jamaica, grappling with her own questions of identity and sexuality, and trying desperately to empathize with her mother’s decision.
Expertly evoking the jittery streets of New York and the languid rhythms of Jamaica, Patsy weaves between the lives of Patsy and Tru in vignettes spanning more than a decade as mother and daughter ultimately find a way back to one another.
419 pages, Hardcover
First published June 4, 2019
About the author
Nicole Dennis-Benn
11 books1,177 followersNicole Dennis-Benn is the author of the novels PATSY (June 4, 2019), HERE COMES THE SUN (Liveright, 2016), and BLACK GOLD (Random House, 2027).
HERE COMES THE SUN was a New York Times Editor’s Choice and Notable Book of 2016. Recently, Here Comes the Sun was listed as a New York Times Most Notable Book of the decade. PATSY, her second novel, was a National Bestseller, a Today Show Read with Jenna Book Club Pick and a New York Times Editor’s Choice. Both novels had appeared in over twenty-five “best books of the year” list, which included TIME, Oprah, People, NPR, among others. Nicole was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle John Leonard Award, the New York Public Library Young Lions Award, The Center for Fiction First Novel Prize, Pen/Faulkner Award in Fiction, and a two-time winner of the Lambda Literary Award Fiction Prize. She was a recipient of the Caribbean Icon Award and a Certificate of Honor from Lincoln Center Theater for her outstanding contribution to literature. Her books have remained as must-reads on various major lists since publication and have been translated into multiple languages. Born and raised in Kingston, Jamaica, Dennis-Benn is a graduate of Cornell University and holds a Master of Public Health from the University of Michigan and an MFA in Creative Writing from Sarah Lawrence College. She is a Visiting Associate Professor in Creative Writing at Bryn Mawr College and lives with her wife and their two sons in Brooklyn.
HERE COMES THE SUN was a New York Times Editor’s Choice and Notable Book of 2016. Recently, Here Comes the Sun was listed as a New York Times Most Notable Book of the decade. PATSY, her second novel, was a National Bestseller, a Today Show Read with Jenna Book Club Pick and a New York Times Editor’s Choice. Both novels had appeared in over twenty-five “best books of the year” list, which included TIME, Oprah, People, NPR, among others. Nicole was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle John Leonard Award, the New York Public Library Young Lions Award, The Center for Fiction First Novel Prize, Pen/Faulkner Award in Fiction, and a two-time winner of the Lambda Literary Award Fiction Prize. She was a recipient of the Caribbean Icon Award and a Certificate of Honor from Lincoln Center Theater for her outstanding contribution to literature. Her books have remained as must-reads on various major lists since publication and have been translated into multiple languages. Born and raised in Kingston, Jamaica, Dennis-Benn is a graduate of Cornell University and holds a Master of Public Health from the University of Michigan and an MFA in Creative Writing from Sarah Lawrence College. She is a Visiting Associate Professor in Creative Writing at Bryn Mawr College and lives with her wife and their two sons in Brooklyn.
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April 22, 2021
Il libro si snoda molto lento, raccontando in parallelo la vita di Patsy, una donna jamaicana emigrata negli Stati Uniti per inseguire un sogno di vita diversa, e la figlia Tru, lasciata in patria con la promessa di tornare a recuperarla al più presto. Precipita poi nelle ultime 20 pagine, dove succede di tutto, il tono finale poi stona con il racconto crudo del resto.
Displaying 1 of 1 review