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4.03 AVERAGE
4.03 AVERAGE
The failure of the dream...
A young man goes to meet an old friend who is returning to visit the neighbourhood where she grew up and he still lives. Aisha's visit prompts Michael to think back to his childhood and teen years in the 1980s, when he and his older brother Francis were being brought up by their mother, an immigrant to Canada from Trinidad whose husband had deserted her when the boys were young. She is strict with the boys, with the usual immigrant dream that they will make successful lives in this society that is new to her. But she has to struggle hard to make ends meet, working several jobs, often having to leave the boys alone and usually exhausted when she finally gets home. So the boys, good at heart, have too many opportunities to drift into the 'wrong' crowd. When they are caught up in an incident of street violence, it begins a chain of events that will ultimately lead to tragedy.
This is a short book with no unnecessary padding, and its brevity makes it all the more powerful. It's a story of how the immigrant dream can go wrong, but it's not overtly hammering polemics at the reader nor too heavily making a 'point'. I found it eye-opening, though, because I'd never really thought of Canada as having the kind of immigrant neighbourhoods described so vividly in the book.
Chariandy brings the neighbourhood of Scarborough to life, showing it as a place where a constant influx of immigrants from different countries around the world first settle when they arrive in Canada, seeing their life there as a stage on the road to either them or their children one day making it in their new world and moving on to more desirable areas. The city of which the neighbourhood is a suburb is, I think, Toronto, but really it could be any big city, in almost any Western country. There is poverty here, both financial and of expectations, and there's the violence and insecurity that usually goes with that; and the exploitation of these incomers as a ready supply of cheap and disposable labour by unscrupulous employers. But Chariandy also shows the kindness that can exist among people when they all face the same problems and share the same dreams.
I found the portrait of the neighbourhood utterly believable, drawn without the exaggerated over-dramatisation that often infests books about the failure of the immigrant dream, making them feel like an unnuanced and often unfair condemnation of the host nation. Although this book centres on a tragedy, Chariandy also allows the reader to see hope – to believe that for some, the dream is indeed possible to attain; and this has a double effect – it stops the book from presenting a picture of unrelenting despair, and it makes the events even more tragic because they don't feel as if they were inevitable.
There's also a short section of the boys and their mother visiting Trinidad – her home, but a new country to them, full of relatives they've never met and a lifestyle that is as foreign to them as Canada is to their mother. Again beautifully done, Chariandy shows the freshness of the immigrant dream through the eyes of the Trinidadian relatives, who assume that the mother's life in Canada is one of comfort and ease in comparison to their own, while the reader has seen the reality of constant days of struggle, hard, poorly-paid work and exhaustion.
An excellent novel, insightful, beautifully written, and with some wonderfully believable characterisation. And happily, unlike too much Canadian literature, available in the UK! Highly recommended.
NB This book was provided for review by the publisher, Bloomsbury Publishing.
www.fictionfanblog.wordpress.com
A young man goes to meet an old friend who is returning to visit the neighbourhood where she grew up and he still lives. Aisha's visit prompts Michael to think back to his childhood and teen years in the 1980s, when he and his older brother Francis were being brought up by their mother, an immigrant to Canada from Trinidad whose husband had deserted her when the boys were young. She is strict with the boys, with the usual immigrant dream that they will make successful lives in this society that is new to her. But she has to struggle hard to make ends meet, working several jobs, often having to leave the boys alone and usually exhausted when she finally gets home. So the boys, good at heart, have too many opportunities to drift into the 'wrong' crowd. When they are caught up in an incident of street violence, it begins a chain of events that will ultimately lead to tragedy.
This is a short book with no unnecessary padding, and its brevity makes it all the more powerful. It's a story of how the immigrant dream can go wrong, but it's not overtly hammering polemics at the reader nor too heavily making a 'point'. I found it eye-opening, though, because I'd never really thought of Canada as having the kind of immigrant neighbourhoods described so vividly in the book.
Some of our neighbours have memories of the events that began with the shootings that hot summer. But new people are always arriving in the Park. And they often come under challenging circumstances, from the Caribbean, from South Asia and Africa and the Middle East, from places like Jaffna and Mogadishu. For these newer neighbours, there is always a story connected to Mother and me, a story made all the more frightening through each inventive retelling among neighbours. It is a story, effectively vague, of a young man deeply “troubled” and of a younger brother carrying “history,” and of a mother showing now the creep of “madness.”
Chariandy brings the neighbourhood of Scarborough to life, showing it as a place where a constant influx of immigrants from different countries around the world first settle when they arrive in Canada, seeing their life there as a stage on the road to either them or their children one day making it in their new world and moving on to more desirable areas. The city of which the neighbourhood is a suburb is, I think, Toronto, but really it could be any big city, in almost any Western country. There is poverty here, both financial and of expectations, and there's the violence and insecurity that usually goes with that; and the exploitation of these incomers as a ready supply of cheap and disposable labour by unscrupulous employers. But Chariandy also shows the kindness that can exist among people when they all face the same problems and share the same dreams.
I found the portrait of the neighbourhood utterly believable, drawn without the exaggerated over-dramatisation that often infests books about the failure of the immigrant dream, making them feel like an unnuanced and often unfair condemnation of the host nation. Although this book centres on a tragedy, Chariandy also allows the reader to see hope – to believe that for some, the dream is indeed possible to attain; and this has a double effect – it stops the book from presenting a picture of unrelenting despair, and it makes the events even more tragic because they don't feel as if they were inevitable.
There's also a short section of the boys and their mother visiting Trinidad – her home, but a new country to them, full of relatives they've never met and a lifestyle that is as foreign to them as Canada is to their mother. Again beautifully done, Chariandy shows the freshness of the immigrant dream through the eyes of the Trinidadian relatives, who assume that the mother's life in Canada is one of comfort and ease in comparison to their own, while the reader has seen the reality of constant days of struggle, hard, poorly-paid work and exhaustion.
We brushed our teeth at a pipe outdoors that offered only cold water. And trying to pee one last time before bed, I stepped on something hard but moving, an insect, prehistoric big it seemed to me, that clicked angrily and flapped away.
Francis and I lay down on our mat, but when the lights were turned off, we couldn't sleep. Wild creatures called in the dark, and the air was filled with the hum of insects, louder than any traffic we heard at home. The living room window framed a full moon that shone like a cool white sun, and billions of stars, a universe we had never even imagined.
An excellent novel, insightful, beautifully written, and with some wonderfully believable characterisation. And happily, unlike too much Canadian literature, available in the UK! Highly recommended.
NB This book was provided for review by the publisher, Bloomsbury Publishing.
www.fictionfanblog.wordpress.com
challenging
emotional
reflective
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Like the author, I too grew up in Scarborough — albeit a decidedly different Scarborough of a decidedly different time. Even 20 to 40 years after the setting of the book, it seems there is much in common with the Scarborough of the past. This part of the city has changed marginally, but stories of violence, poverty, slow urban decay, and rougher communities are commonplace: even in the neighbourhood I grew up in.
I'm not here to talk about my personal life, however. This is a review about Brother, a book set in Scarborough. I think for the most part, the book succeeds in bringing some sense of authenticity in the themes it seeks to express and explore. Dreams and second chances. Poverty and race. There is no questioning how honest the depictions in the book are. These are characters that could have been easily mirrored in the real world, in a place that is as real as the book tries to portray it.
Chariandy's writing is profoundly accessible, and I think trying to strike a balance between accessibility and still providing nuance, many of the book's shortfalls become apparent. Like many contemporary novels written and published in the West, Brother is written as a young adult book. There is no inherent crime in writing in this style, but many books like this have shallow stories and dreadfully boring writing. Brother, for its part, does not buck this trend at all. It especially falls victim to events that are easily predictable.
The book plays with non-linearity. I think the implementation of this was somewhere in the middle between questionable and well-done. Reviewers frequently invoke this theme of memory and recollection. For its part, every single detail in the novel was written with almost pinpoint precision, irrespective of the point in time. Not a single detail goes unnoticed - which is especially baffling considering the nearly 10-year gap between the two timelines readers are asked to consider. Every single detail. Memory is unreliable, and people don't notice everything going on around them. Not in this book, though. Like a child's first look at non-linear storytelling. Definitely not perfect.
Very close to the end of the book forms some of its most poignant writing. To move on from grief and trauma, and to see the effects of this on community. To flee from truly facing it. At the very end comes an expected conclusion - though I think not a natural one, more one typical of its genre.
This book would probably be best taught in a pre-secondary school classroom.
1.5/5
I'm not here to talk about my personal life, however. This is a review about Brother, a book set in Scarborough. I think for the most part, the book succeeds in bringing some sense of authenticity in the themes it seeks to express and explore. Dreams and second chances. Poverty and race. There is no questioning how honest the depictions in the book are. These are characters that could have been easily mirrored in the real world, in a place that is as real as the book tries to portray it.
Chariandy's writing is profoundly accessible, and I think trying to strike a balance between accessibility and still providing nuance, many of the book's shortfalls become apparent. Like many contemporary novels written and published in the West, Brother is written as a young adult book. There is no inherent crime in writing in this style, but many books like this have shallow stories and dreadfully boring writing. Brother, for its part, does not buck this trend at all. It especially falls victim to events that are easily predictable.
The book plays with non-linearity. I think the implementation of this was somewhere in the middle between questionable and well-done. Reviewers frequently invoke this theme of memory and recollection. For its part, every single detail in the novel was written with almost pinpoint precision, irrespective of the point in time. Not a single detail goes unnoticed - which is especially baffling considering the nearly 10-year gap between the two timelines readers are asked to consider. Every single detail. Memory is unreliable, and people don't notice everything going on around them. Not in this book, though. Like a child's first look at non-linear storytelling. Definitely not perfect.
Very close to the end of the book forms some of its most poignant writing. To move on from grief and trauma, and to see the effects of this on community. To flee from truly facing it. At the very end comes an expected conclusion - though I think not a natural one, more one typical of its genre.
This book would probably be best taught in a pre-secondary school classroom.
1.5/5
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
School books got me panicking LOL, but the book is all alright. It has a solid message on lost / grief and the relatability is high on this one. Just nothing more to it than that.
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cursing, Death, Gun violence, Hate crime, Racial slurs, Racism, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Injury/Injury detail, Classism
Moderate: Bullying
Minor: Slavery, Car accident, Abandonment, Alcohol
Every once in a while I find a book that is so good, so compelling that I find myself reading it in every free minute. While I'm waiting for my eggs to be ready to flip, read a few pages, while I'm in the elevator to switch the laundry from the washer to the dryer, read a few more, while eating dinner, read more, read and read before bed until you are so tired you read the same paragraph six times before finally having to admit, one hour after you normally are asleep, you really can't possibly read any more. A book of this length often takes a week or more for me and this was done in two days. And now I'm sad because it's over and I'll never read it for the first time again and these characters I love will be gone. I'll miss them.
I've been to this part of Scarborough several times, sometimes going to visit the library in the area on a project to visit all of Toronto's libraries. Other times I cycled through the Rouge valley myself. So of course I had a lot of mental images as I read. And now when I ride through there on my bike again part of me will be looking for folks, wondering how they're all doing.
This one's going to be a hard one to follow.
I've been to this part of Scarborough several times, sometimes going to visit the library in the area on a project to visit all of Toronto's libraries. Other times I cycled through the Rouge valley myself. So of course I had a lot of mental images as I read. And now when I ride through there on my bike again part of me will be looking for folks, wondering how they're all doing.
This one's going to be a hard one to follow.
