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A review by gabsalott13
Another Brooklyn by Jacqueline Woodson
5.0
One of the rare cases where I should've listened to the hype, and read Another Brooklyn *much* sooner.
Jacqueline Woodson's novel (reads like a novella, more on that later) follows a group of girlfriends growing in and out of their worlds in Brooklyn. Within this structure, there's so much: war and PTSD, vivid and incomplete memories, patriarchy and negotiation, our coping mechanisms for all this mess and more.
Woodson finds these amazing ways to anchor the story in 1970s Brooklyn while also shedding light on how the girls see the rest of the world. Her takes on white flight and gentrification are subtle, yet tragic—the very novel is dedicated to a Bushwick that no longer exists. I loved the snippets about international death rituals, which served as small poetic touches in a broader story of childhood mourning. Page 126 has my new favorite summary of (black) diaspora and migration: "We knew Down South. Everyone had one. Jamaica, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico. The threat of a place we could end back up in to be raised by a crusted-over single auntie or strict grandmother."
You will fly through this book in fever dream form, but you'll almost wish you hadn't. Every other page has lines that completely gutted me, and I bet I'll be reading several more times to find them all.
***Special Note: Another Brooklyn is the 2018 pick for One Book, One Philadelphia. For people in/near Philly, these events will be great ways to unpack this incredible novel: https://libwww.freelibrary.org/programs/onebook/.
Jacqueline Woodson's novel (reads like a novella, more on that later) follows a group of girlfriends growing in and out of their worlds in Brooklyn. Within this structure, there's so much: war and PTSD, vivid and incomplete memories, patriarchy and negotiation, our coping mechanisms for all this mess and more.
Woodson finds these amazing ways to anchor the story in 1970s Brooklyn while also shedding light on how the girls see the rest of the world. Her takes on white flight and gentrification are subtle, yet tragic—the very novel is dedicated to a Bushwick that no longer exists. I loved the snippets about international death rituals, which served as small poetic touches in a broader story of childhood mourning. Page 126 has my new favorite summary of (black) diaspora and migration: "We knew Down South. Everyone had one. Jamaica, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico. The threat of a place we could end back up in to be raised by a crusted-over single auntie or strict grandmother."
You will fly through this book in fever dream form, but you'll almost wish you hadn't. Every other page has lines that completely gutted me, and I bet I'll be reading several more times to find them all.
***Special Note: Another Brooklyn is the 2018 pick for One Book, One Philadelphia. For people in/near Philly, these events will be great ways to unpack this incredible novel: https://libwww.freelibrary.org/programs/onebook/.