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A review by half_book_and_co
That Reminds Me by Derek Owusu
4.0
3,5
"In our house, where Twi holds loss within each of its syllables, we sing songs of thanks, remembering what we had."
Evoking Anansi, the trickster, the owner of all stories, Derek Owusu tells a complicated, layered coming-of-age story. The protagonist, K., grows up partially in foster care, partially with his birth mother. Early experiences with abuse, poverty, and racism form trauma which K. struggles to address even when he starts to find friends and love. The narration through short, often poetic vignettes reflects the fickleness of memory but also the fragmentation of a self reckoning with mental illness. Though I found that some vignettes crossed the line from poetic to (too) opaque making it hard to grasp any content. There are also some themes and narrative threads which I felt were dropped - which, as this is told in first person, might be very true to K.'s experience of the world but left me wanting a bit more.
Though all in all, this novel gives its reader hardly any relief on its 113 pages but unflinchingly tells the story of a young Black man, mental health, self-harm, and suicidal ideation. It is a strong first novel (or rather novella) which made me excited to see what Owusu writes next.
"In our house, where Twi holds loss within each of its syllables, we sing songs of thanks, remembering what we had."
Evoking Anansi, the trickster, the owner of all stories, Derek Owusu tells a complicated, layered coming-of-age story. The protagonist, K., grows up partially in foster care, partially with his birth mother. Early experiences with abuse, poverty, and racism form trauma which K. struggles to address even when he starts to find friends and love. The narration through short, often poetic vignettes reflects the fickleness of memory but also the fragmentation of a self reckoning with mental illness. Though I found that some vignettes crossed the line from poetic to (too) opaque making it hard to grasp any content. There are also some themes and narrative threads which I felt were dropped - which, as this is told in first person, might be very true to K.'s experience of the world but left me wanting a bit more.
Though all in all, this novel gives its reader hardly any relief on its 113 pages but unflinchingly tells the story of a young Black man, mental health, self-harm, and suicidal ideation. It is a strong first novel (or rather novella) which made me excited to see what Owusu writes next.