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oddreads_nicolestins's review
adventurous
emotional
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Sexual content, and Toxic friendship
haitianrich's review
4.0
Unlike his peer Junot Diaz, Lavelle did not transition as well to novel writing as Diaz and Slapboxing is a big reason why. So much well-deserved hype was dropped on him because of this book of short stories. Hipsters, academics, literary types were all loving these honest and humorous, very East Coast-feeling urban tales.
shopgirl's review
3.0
A gut-wrenching and quietly powerful selection of stories exploring how poverty, racism, and generational devastation affect black masculinity: punishing emotional openness, prioritizing individual success. The way that LaValle writes is calm, plain; through this, using this, he creates beauty, terrible though such beauty may seem. Several particular stories stand out, and I greatly, GREATLY admire how LaValle tells so much about characters, their histories, and their spheres without constraining himself to many archetypal story 'structures.' Many of the stories end without typical resolution. The resolution is itself the story. Given the trajectory, we can see how it will most likely end years down the line.
Where the collection failed for me is in its treatment of black women, all of whom are sexual objects, nags, sisters, women who are presented to the reader as without dreams of their own or lives of their own. They exist in the shadows as pageantry to dress up the suffering of men.
I also understand why LaValle used homophobic slurs in the characters' dialogue, as it shows one of many ways in which emotional closeness and the intimacies of friendship are hyper-policed among men, but the lack of any gay or queer characters in the stories felt like a forgetting. Are gay men not also subjected to such cultural violence?
Where the collection failed for me is in its treatment of black women, all of whom are sexual objects, nags, sisters, women who are presented to the reader as without dreams of their own or lives of their own. They exist in the shadows as pageantry to dress up the suffering of men.
I also understand why LaValle used homophobic slurs in the characters' dialogue, as it shows one of many ways in which emotional closeness and the intimacies of friendship are hyper-policed among men, but the lack of any gay or queer characters in the stories felt like a forgetting. Are gay men not also subjected to such cultural violence?
drewsof's review
3.0
On a craft level, these stories are fantastic. Vibrant, visceral, funny and sad and moving sometimes at the same time.
But after having read LaValle's more recent work (BIG MACHINE and on), these don't quite... I don't know, they don't fit? I guess? They feel like, to the jacket copy's point, attempts to do what Sherman Alexie and Junot Diaz were doing, machismo and all. But I don't really want that, these days. It's a different world from 1999 and I'm glad to know that LaValle morphed and matured as a writer, coming into his own as a master of the strange, instead of walking down these well-worn alleys that don't quite hold up twenty years later.
But after having read LaValle's more recent work (BIG MACHINE and on), these don't quite... I don't know, they don't fit? I guess? They feel like, to the jacket copy's point, attempts to do what Sherman Alexie and Junot Diaz were doing, machismo and all. But I don't really want that, these days. It's a different world from 1999 and I'm glad to know that LaValle morphed and matured as a writer, coming into his own as a master of the strange, instead of walking down these well-worn alleys that don't quite hold up twenty years later.
runawaybookcase's review
challenging
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
3.5
dannafs's review
4.0
"'--See, that's why I talk to only one beautiful woman at a time. More than that I think I'd die. Man wasn't meant to breathe the thin air at the top of your ego.'"
"'--Awww, his father shrugged, you boys can't see gold because you're too busy looking for bubble gum.'"
"'--Awww, his father shrugged, you boys can't see gold because you're too busy looking for bubble gum.'"
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