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A review by literarycrushes
The Selfless Act of Breathing by J.J. Bola
5.0
This book… I read a comment somewhere about someone wanting to tattoo every line of this book across their face, and YES. It was devastating, heartfelt, and beautiful. I cried more times than I can count over the course of the two days in which I spent mostly just reading this novel.
The premise alone is incredible: Michael Kabongo is a London school teacher who is becoming increasingly tired of the world around him and the war within himself. From the lives of his students which are unlikely to improve, to the death of his father when he was a child, to the violent marginalization of black men around the world. After a heartbreaking incident, Michael decides he’s had enough. He plans to take his life savings (around $10k) and venture to America with the plan that when his savings run out, he will take his own life. We follow Michael from finding love in the streets of Harlem to being pulled over by cops in Dallas, to a strip club in the suburbs of Chicago. But more importantly, we follow him into the darkest places in his mind.
He describes his pain in lyrical yet direct prose that brings you in, and when Michael feels like he is drowning, you feel that you are drowning too, but not in despair but hope in the feeling that you are not alone. This book caught my breath, broke my heart open, and will undoubtedly stay with me. This is the rare book I get from the library but will still buy just to have on my bookshelf. Cannot recommend it enough!!
The premise alone is incredible: Michael Kabongo is a London school teacher who is becoming increasingly tired of the world around him and the war within himself. From the lives of his students which are unlikely to improve, to the death of his father when he was a child, to the violent marginalization of black men around the world. After a heartbreaking incident, Michael decides he’s had enough. He plans to take his life savings (around $10k) and venture to America with the plan that when his savings run out, he will take his own life. We follow Michael from finding love in the streets of Harlem to being pulled over by cops in Dallas, to a strip club in the suburbs of Chicago. But more importantly, we follow him into the darkest places in his mind.
He describes his pain in lyrical yet direct prose that brings you in, and when Michael feels like he is drowning, you feel that you are drowning too, but not in despair but hope in the feeling that you are not alone. This book caught my breath, broke my heart open, and will undoubtedly stay with me. This is the rare book I get from the library but will still buy just to have on my bookshelf. Cannot recommend it enough!!