Reason read: shared read for TIOLI, a Booker Long list book.
I didn't realize that this was going to be short stories. The stories are considered connected but at times it felt disjointed rather than connected. The main character is Trelawney and his family; Delano (older brother), mother, father. There is a story of Cukie and his father Ox. The setting is Miami and the time period is 70s to 90s. Trelawny was born in the US. He doesn't fit in to any clear box. He's not black, white and therefore he is unable to find his identity in the US. He is born here so he is not an immigrant.
I enjoyed the short stories but at times I found it disjointed. I don't think the book is so much about race but it is about identity and finding your tribe. Other themes included immigration and destruction. ( )

*Longlisted for the Booker Prize 2023*

3.5⭐

If I Survive You by Jonathon Escoffery revolves around a Jamaican immigrant family who settles in Miami in the 1970s. Through a series of eight interconnected stories, we follow the family as they navigate their way through years of financial struggles, racism and poverty compounded by their struggles with acceptance, identity crisis, dysfunctional family dynamics, and turbulent relationships. The stories are told through the POVs of multiple members of the family, though a major part of the story is told from the perspective of Trelawny, the younger son of Topper and Sanya. Trelawny’s relationship with his father and brother, Delano is integral to how Trelawney approaches the major decisions in his life. The first story is told from Trelawny’s PoV and focuses on his identity crisis and his efforts to find a place for himself amongst his friends and peers.

“You’re a rather pale shade of brown, if skin color has anything to do with race. Your parents share your hue. As do their parents. Their parents, your great-grands, occupy your family’s photo albums in black-and-white and sepia tones that conceal the color of their skin. Some look like they might guest-appear on The Jeffersons, while others look like they’d sooner be cast on All in the Family.”

A question he is often asked is “What are you?” – a question that he is unable to convincingly answer. Not dark enough to be labeled Black, clearly neither Hispanic nor White, though he often does use this lack of clarity about his racial identity to his benefit in an effort to fit in with different peer groups in school, this is a question that follows him throughout his life.

Life is not easy for Trelawny as he struggles to find a place for himself in the world and deal with conflicting expectations from his family, mostly his father who tries to preserve and imbibe as much of the values of his ethnic culture and habits of his home country as possible in his sons. As Topper reflects on his younger son, “In spite of him name, Trelawny grow up strange. Foreign. You blame the nursery school teachers where you and Sanya leave him when you go work each morning, where you bring him from him turn six months old.”

Trelawny struggles with his relationship with his family and with romantic relationships. Not only does he find it difficult to secure meaningful employment despite being a college graduate and is unable to settle in a career that would be fulfilling but also struggles to find a sense of belongingness among his family , peers and society in general. He finds himself alone most of the time, making questionable choices, often not quite learning from his mistakes. The author also gives us insight into what motivates Sanya, Delano and Topper as they go their own way and what makes this a compelling read is that despite being a family, each of these characters has distinct trajectories that take them in different directions.

“It occurs to you that people like you—people who burn themselves up in pursuit of survival—rarely survive anyone or anything.”

Jonathan Escoffery’s writing is powerful and his themes are timely and relevant. I did have some trouble following the dialect in some parts of the story and while I enjoyed the honest and authentic depiction of the immigrant experience as told through the perspectives of a family, each of whom is strong, willful and motivated in their own way, I found it hard to emotionally connect with the characters. An immigrant myself, I understand and respect that the immigrant experience is different for different people. While parts of the narrative were impactful and resonated with me and others were more than a tad depressing (though the author attempts to balance the sad parts with some humor), I can’t say that I felt completely invested in the characters. However, this is an extremely well-written book that tackles themes of immigration, race and class with insight and honesty. ( )

DNF. The chapters were not connected enough to make a real novel. Only recommended for fans of short stories. ( )

This is the story of a Jamaican American family, primarily told through the experiences of Trelawney, the youngest son. Spanning decades, beginning with Hurricane Andrew, blasting through their family home and through the family's stability, through Trelawney's struggles to make his way in a world not eager to allow a Black man to succeed.

This is a novel about toxic family dynamics and a lonely boy who couldn't figure out where he belongs. I'm not sure this novel entirely succeeds; the effort being put into its writing sometimes shows, but Escoffery has a unique voice and a real talent and his writing career will be one to watch. ( )

Fresh and vital, totally absorbing, I really enjoyed this read. The book is a collection of connected short stories about a Jamaican family in Miami. Most of the stories are from the perspective of Trelawney, one of the family's two sons, but we also get stories from his brother Delano and his father and a cousin, Cukie. Trelawney is the only US born family member, and the difference does not end at place of birth. Trelawney, unlike Delano, is an American, he goes to high school, attends college in the Midwest (where he learns he is Black, among other things), and gets nothing but degradation from trying to live his life by those rules. His father rejects him utterly. His mother decides she is done serving men and sells his childhood home and heads back to Kingston (and then after realizing she has been in America too long and Kingston is no longer home moves to Florence.) He finds himself homeless, and then answerable to his self-serving father and brother for survival. To top things off he finds he has no tribe as a visually ethnically ambiguous English degree wielding underemployed 20-something in Miami or in his college time in the Midwest. This book is funny and heartbreaking, wise and wicked, and tells a unique story very very well.

I wish Escoffery had written this as a novel rather than as short stories. I did not need the other POVs. Trelawney is captivating, and his are the strongest stories by far. The Cukie story particularly was weirdly wedged in and would have been better as a freestanding short story. The changes in narrative kicked my butt out of the story, and it was a story I really wanted to stay in. So much of this was a 5-star, but it is a a high 4 even with the missteps. I cannot wait to see what he does next. ( )