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A review by andyirwin89
A Lucky Man by Jamel Brinkley
3.0
A delicate set of portraits about black masculinity. These short stories are deep, rich and textured - writing men in a way I love to see and rarely see. It’s bleak though. Almost relentlessly, with occasional bursts of sunshine through the cracks of the quiet despair that comes with each of the stories. There is love and tenderness for and from the men in these portraits, but it’s complicated.
I can’t live the experiences that these stories portray, I can empathise only insofar as I’m a man who shares the challenges of expressing my true self honestly in a patriarchal system. Skin colour and belonging are rooted in all of these stories and some of them are pretty heartbreaking to read, that’s what makes them powerful.
The women who appear in these stories, however, are mostly un-textured caricatures that lack depth. They’re almost all lightly warped versions of a straight man’s fantasy-cum-fear.
I can’t live the experiences that these stories portray, I can empathise only insofar as I’m a man who shares the challenges of expressing my true self honestly in a patriarchal system. Skin colour and belonging are rooted in all of these stories and some of them are pretty heartbreaking to read, that’s what makes them powerful.
The women who appear in these stories, however, are mostly un-textured caricatures that lack depth. They’re almost all lightly warped versions of a straight man’s fantasy-cum-fear.