Brown Girls, Daphne Palasi Andreades, author; Tashi Thomas, narrator
I have never read anything quite like this. It is a story of contrasts in the lives of a group of friends as they mature and move on. The experience of reading this book was almost life altering because the author has put life until death, on the page. Although it is about the experience of immigrants, of “brown girls, brown girls, brown girls”, as the author writes, in 8 parts, the book could also be about any girl as she experiences her life, from childhood to the end of life. In lyrical prose, many of the important moments of life, coupled with some trivial ones, from birth to growing up and finally to death, are all included in the novel. They revolve around the mundane daily life experiences we all have with our siblings, family and friends, in our faith or lack thereof, in school situations, when in danger, when dealing with crime, assault, romance, lovers, parents, joy and pain. The story comes alive with not one wasted word. Race is front and center, but so delicately handled that it is never offensive and always all embracing.
Although I am not brown, I am part of a group that is not quite mainstream, and I, and my siblings too, could identify with some of the struggles and the achievements described in the novel. We also wanted to satisfy our parents’ dreams, and our own dreams. We knew the experience of being the “first” in the family, like first generation American, first to graduate from college, first to go to work and being independent, sometimes defying and betraying their dreams and our own. I remember aiding family members in need, having disappointing siblings, but still loving them, and holding on to the memories, refusing to let them die. I found this book to be transcendent.
For me, the most powerful sentence in the book was the one when the child declares that she wants to wear her mother’s skin. If only skin were that easy to ignore, the world would be a far better place.
Although the author even discussed politics I did not agree with, it was with a gentle touch. I wonder though, if the book had been written today, would she have judged the one President she did judge, as harshly, since the current occupier of the White House is doing far worse, especially with the raging pandemic.
Although the book is about girls from immigrant families in Queens, it could be about girls anywhere who feel out of place. Girls who are not native to the area in which they are living, girls who feel that they might fit in better someplace else, in another part of the world or another city perhaps, finally discovering, in their upward mobility, that there is no nirvana. No place is perfect, but home calls us all, family ties and memories all call us back to another time and another place with nostalgia, and we are glad to have had that home and those precious remembrances.
The girls try to march forward; some succeed and some fail. The idea is to keep getting back up even when the wounds may be self-inflicted. It is indeed a thorough, sometimes harsh, sometimes tender, look at a life of color, of immigrants and of differences. The hopes and dreams, disappointments, successes and failures are universal, however.
The narrator read this book with such perfection that I could see her standing on a stage as she performed it. Her tone, her expression, her emotional approach was superb. She defined every moment into lifelike scenes.