As I continue to explore the thirteen 2023 Booker Prize nominees (two of the books will not actually be published in the U.S. until after the prize winner is announced), Jonathan Escoffery's If I Survive You has been the most pleasant surprise to me so far. By its very nature, this one is unusual because it is the only book of short stories on a nominee list otherwise comprised of twelve novels. Escoffery's eight stories, however, are so well connected that If I Survive You tells a more coherent story than several of the Booker novels I've read this year.
This is the 1970s coming-of-age story of two brothers, one born in Jamaica where his parents then lived, the other in Miami after the family fled Jamaican political violence for a safer life in the United States. Although the stories are mostly told from the point of view of Trelawny, the youngest of the two brothers, Escoffery sometimes uses first person, sometimes second person, and sometimes third to tell them.
Trelawny is the only member of the family born in the U.S. but that doesn't keep him from being the family's most conflicted member. As a boy, he struggles to find a comfortable niche for himself among his fellow public school students but soon learns that no group will have him around for long. Trelawny is a light-skinned Jamaican, so he is not black enough for the Blacks to claim him; but he is obviously enough not white that the White students don't want him around either; and although he is often at first glance mistaken for a Hispanic, Trelawny speaks no Spanish, so the hispanic kids also want no part of him.
The family begins to fall apart almost from the beginning because Topper, the boys' father, is more interested in drinking and chasing women than he is in bringing home a regular paycheck. Then Sanya, their mother, becomes so disillusioned with her husband and life in America that she returns to Jamaica on her own, only to find that she no longer feels Jamaican enough to live in that country. And Delano, Trelawny's older brother, seems to believe that being first born entitles him to disinherit Trelawny. So he does so.
The eight stories in If I Survive You are chronologically linked together so well that they could just as easily be called chapters in a novel as called short stories, so it's easy to see why the Booker judges included the book on their shortlist. The stories combine to portray vividly the immigrant experience, especially that of first generation Americans as they walk the fine line between the culture of their parents and that of the only country they themselves have ever known.
This is a worthy addition to the 2023 Booker shortlist, and I would not be at all surprised if it were to win the prize.
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| Jonathan Escoffery jacket photo |
Thank you for the update.
ReplyDeleteI am really impressed with Escoffery's prose, Mystica, along with the construction of the book.
DeleteI understand your praise of this book, but it sounds too depressing for me. I have close friends who are immigrants (from Taiwan, Communist China and the Philippines) and their stories are much brighter. Nice review though.
ReplyDeleteIt wasn't nearly as depressing to me than it probably should have been, I suppose because I got so caught up in the individual stories of the five main characters. But it's definitely not a feel-good kind of book.
DeleteI think the reason the character here found it so difficult to assimilate or to find his "group" here is that he looks nothing like the stereotypical Jamaican would look to outsiders. He doesn't sound like them either because he learned English in Miami and not in Jamaica. I think his problem would have been more one of racial identity than national identity.
Glad it turned out to be such a pleasant surprise.
ReplyDeleteMe, too. I read so many negative things about it, and even heard a podcast or two blowing it off, that I didn't expect to like it at all.
DeleteYeah immigrant stories have been pretty numerous the past many years and I have enjoyed various ones. Your review makes me want to read this one and linked stories is okay with me.
ReplyDeleteIt all holds together really well, even making more sense to me earlier on than a couple of these novels on the list.
DeleteHi Sam, Great review and summary of this book. I am really getting a feel of what If I Survive You is about and why it's worth reading. It's the book that jumped out at me when I first saw the Booker nominations.. I enjoy novels about characters who go on a journey either literally or figuratively and come out better at the end of it and it sounds like that is what happens with Trelawny
ReplyDeleteTrelawny is never really satisfied with anything he achieves, even though he and his mother are the closest things to success stories in the family. But then again, that's probably why he achieves even as much as he does.
DeleteI enjoyed reading your review, Sam, and would like to give this book a try. Connected stories are usually a hit for me.
ReplyDeleteIf you like connected short stories, I do think you'll enjoy this one, JoAnn. It was a really nice surprise to me.
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