Reviews - Another Brooklyn

2.27k reviews for:

Review copy: ARC from publisher, final copy via library

What a powerful book. Another Brooklyn feels real. August lets us see her journey from childhood to adult through her memories. These are memories of pain, laughter, friendship, family, music, death, fear, love, and so much more. Memory is a word used many times from the very first page. "I know now that what is tragic isn't the moment. It is the memory."

Woodson created an story that transports readers to 1970s Brooklyn with the sights, sounds, and people. I could hear the children playing in the street and feel the heat of the summer days. It felt like I was reading a memoir or someone's diary. August kept reminding readers about memory as she told about growing up girl in Brooklyn.

August is a transplant to Brooklyn. She sees the children outside, particularly three girls, and wants to be part of their group. She looks at them and thinks they are standing strong. I loved the conversation they have about how they saw each other in the beginning. August explains, "we saw the lost and beautiful and hungry in each of us. We saw home." Together they could be strong. They held onto each other and their childhood as long as they could while also trying to grow up. Woodson explores that tension of clinging to memories and youth while reaching out for adulthood and dreaming of who they will become all the while navigating the challenges for black girls growing up in Brooklyn.

August's mother had warned her not to trust women though. There were many times when she had let August know that women would betray women. August experiences this and the pain is long-lasting.

Woodson crafted a brilliant story here with close attention to the words. Even the layout creates a unique feeling to the reading experience. There's a lot of white space and italics are used to indicate dialogue rather than quotation marks. This was something to adjust to, but it somehow made the story feel more relaxed and personal.

Recommendation: Fans of Woodson will definitely want to get this one soon as well as people who enjoy memoir. While this is fiction, it feels like memoir and lead me to look at my own memories like many memoirs do. This book is filled with lyrical writing that speaks through heartache as a woman looks back at her coming-of-age. It's not to be missed.

autumn_franks_03's review against another edition

3.75

challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

readerwhy's review against another edition

”We had the Top 40 music of the 1970s trying to tell our story. It never quite figured us out.”

We on August, Angela, Gigi ja Sylvia - ”four girls together, amazingly beautiful and terrifyingly alone.”

Woodsonin romaani sijoittuu 1970-luvun Brooklyniin, jossa tummaihoiset ystävykset toisiinsa tukeutuen pyrkivät selviytymään teinivuosistaan.   Jokaisella tytöistä on omat haasteensa. Näkökulma on Augustin, jonka elämää leimaa erityisesti äidin poissaolo. Äidin, jonka kohtaloon liittyvän totuuden myöntäminen vie häneltä vuosia.  Yhteistä tytöille on ennen muuta se, että he ovat jatkuvasti katseiden kohteena. Heitä houkutellaan kaikkialta. Seksuaalisen hyväksikäytön vaara leijuu heidän ympärillään, kuten myös pelko raskaaksi tulemisesta.

”We turned thirteen and it seemed wherever we were, there were hands and tongues. There were sloe-eyes and licked lips wherever our new breasts and lengthening thighs moved.”

Another Brooklyn on puhutteleva romaani, jonka temaattinen painavuus syntyy osin juuri tekstin ilmavan esitysmuodon ja tyttöjä uhkaavien vaarojen kohtaamisesta.

latad_books's review against another edition

4.0

The writing in this story was lovely and heartbreaking and scary and funny and sad. I've never read anything by Jacqueline Woodson before, though I knew she had written books for kids. In this story, her central character is adult August, who looks back to her childhood in Brooklyn after the death of her father in the novel's opening. She, her father and younger brother are newly arrived in Brooklyn from Tennessee when August was 8 years old. August kept telling her younger brother that their mother would join them tomorrow, though it was clear that something has happened to their mother, and it was pretty unlikely she would be joining them.
August and her brother spend time in their apartment, watching people pass by in the street below, and this is where August first sees Gigi, Sylvia and Angela. These three girls look like they're so together and such good friends. August eventually gets pulled into their circle, and the girls spend several years growing up together, against a background of white flight, damaged men returned from Vietnam, drugs, potentially dangerous men to watch out for (in choir, in stores and elsewhere), burgeoning interest in boys, lots of music, hot summers. Unfortunately, not all is idyllic, and the girls hold tight to one another as they enter their teens, but there are pressures and changes pulling each girl in a different direction.
There are so many colours and sounds and smells evoked by the author I could see the Brooklyn streets these girls strode on. August's family dynamic was beautifully conveyed, and August's persistent inability to process the fact of her mother's death was painful to read. The struggles each girl had finding her way to a different and potentially better life was hopeful and also painful.
This was a short book, but a lot was packed into a deceptively simple story.