#frying plantain

[gennsoup]

She had to know what I'd only just now discovered: that peace could only exist in this family when we lied about everything, at least to each other.

Zalika Reid-Benta, Frying Plantain

[bookaddict24-7]

RECO OF THE WEEK!

Frying Plantain by Zalika Reid-Benta

Synopsis: 

“Kara Davis is a girl caught in the middle — of her Canadian nationality and her desire to be a “true” Jamaican, of her mother and grandmother’s rages and life lessons, of having to avoid being thought of as too “faas” or too “quiet” or too “bold” or too “soft.” Set in “Little Jamaica,” Toronto’s Eglinton West neighbourhood, Kara moves from girlhood to the threshold of adulthood, from elementary school to high school graduation, in these twelve interconnected stories. We see her on a visit to Jamaica, startled by the sight of a severed pig’s head in her great aunt’s freezer; in junior high, the victim of a devastating prank by her closest friends; and as a teenager in and out of her grandmother’s house, trying to cope with the ongoing battles between her unyielding grandparents. A rich and unforgettable portrait of growing up between worlds, Frying Plantain shows how, in one charged moment, friendship and love can turn to enmity and hate, well-meaning protection can become control, and teasing play can turn to something much darker. In her brilliantly incisive debut, Zalika Reid-Benta artfully depicts the tensions between mothers and daughters, second-generation Canadians and first-generation cultural expectations, and Black identity and predominately white society.”

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Check out my review here.

Add this book to your TBR on Goodreads here. 

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Have you read this book? Would you recommend it?

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Happy reading!

[gennsoup]

The snow had started to fall, light and fast and fluffy; it was good for packing, for snowmen and snowballs, but I wasn't fooled. This was how all storms started. Gently.

Zalika Reid-Benta, Frying Plantain

[symbolicinteractionism]

I thought about waking her up and confessing about the kiss. Both kisses. I thought about asking her to yell at me later but advise me now, to tell me about boys, to tell me about what life was like for her when she was my age, a year before she became steel-eyed and hard-hearted. I wanted to know about desire: if having it and receiving it meant that your sense of self was gone; if there was anything romantic in melding with another person, like Sheila and Brandon. I knew she had the answers. I knew she'd be able to reach in and sort me out even if I hated her for it.

— "Brandon & Sheila", Frying Plantain, Zalika Reid-Benta.

[symbolicinteractionism]

I'm not nervous. Or scared. I just want to know. I want to know if I can feel anything, if he can discover me, open me up. He said he wanted to know me; maybe he meant that I never give anything of myself over to him. He kisses me again, and I push myself to react, to wrap my arms around him and crush him to me.

— “Lovely”, Frying Plantain, Zalika Reid-Benta.

[symbolicinteractionism]

She had to know what I'd only just now discovered: that peace could only exist in this family when we lied about everything, at least to each other.

— “Faith Community”, Frying Plantain, Zalika Reid-Benta.

[symbolicinteractionism]

They cared so much about each other I was sure they'd kill one another before separating for good. I didn't know if I wanted something that powerful, if I could even have it with someone, what it would require. ...I didn't know if I wanted to be needed. It didn't seem too far off from being used.

— "Brandon & Sheila", Frying Plantain, Zalika Reid-Benta.

[symbolicinteractionism]

I stood there and imagined what it would be like to watch a kitten, barely bigger than a grown-up's hand, get dunked and held under water.

— "Pig Head", Frying Plantain, Zalika Reid-Benta.