BOOK REVIEW: How to Love a Jamaican by Alexia Arthurs

How to Love a Jamaican

By Alexia Arthurs

I have so much to say.

It’s Caribbean Heritage Month and I beseech you all (sorry, I’ve been watching a lot of Bridgerton lately ha!) to #readcaribbean

I’ve just finished reading How to Love a Jamaican by the incomparable Alexia Arthurs so I thought it fitting that I do a book review on it. The title of the novel bears the name of one of the short stories called How to Love a Jamaican.

How to Love a Jamaican is a vastly multidimensional, nuanced, complex and deeply honest and authentic take on the Jamaican experience, particularly the Jamaican experience of Jamaicans living in Jamaica and the Jamaican immigrant experience in relation to America. I highlighted the Jamaican experience of Jamaicans because so often, I feel that Jamaica, (and the huge plethora of other Caribbean countries each with their own unique cultures, languages and foods) is written about through the lens of non-Jamaican people and non-Caribbean people generally. Jamaican culture and people are often distilled and diluted into narrow, ignorant and offensive stereotypes and the complexities of the Jamaican experience are often erased.

This is why I loved How to Love a Jamaican so much. I loved the honest and multi-dimensional portrayal of Jamaican people in this collection of short stories. Alexia Arthurs was born in Jamaica and spent her childhood there before moving to New York with her family when she was twelve. Arthurs understands the tension of having dual or multiple cultural identities.  Please read her masterfully written bio here. Arthurs’ authentic experience of being Jamaican and growing up in Jamaica and in America brilliantly shines through in this touching set of short stories which cover a wide, expansive range of topics from friendship to colourism; sexuality; mental health; poverty; exploring the nature of many Caribbean family structures; Mother-Daughter relationships and the challenges of Jamaican immigrants when emigrating abroad.

As a woman of Guyanese heritage and parentage who is Jamaican born but has grown up in the UK, I read this book knowing that I may never fully understand the nuances of Jamaican culture. Nevertheless, I empathised with characters, smiling wryly at familiar cultural experiences (here’s looking at you Dianne, Shirley’s Mum in the short story Shirley from a Small Place who is “addicted to crime documentary shows”[1] lol.)

This novel, presented as a series of short stories is deeply affecting for the following reasons:

1.       Big themes and ideas are masterfully compacted into short stories. Stories are dense and highly concentrated with ideas and themes yet easily accessible.

2.       The masterful use of Jamaican Creole.

Big Themes and ideas Compacted into Short Stories:

I’ve always felt that one of the most difficult challenges for a writer is to be able to write effective short stories. Writing 200+ pages, gives a writer more time and room to explain, describe and reveal. But fitting novel, ocean length depths of complex feelings, themes and emotions into a small cup of roughly 20-30 pages is hard. Alexia Arthurs does it effortlessly.

In the short story Mash Up Love Arthurs writes about an intricate relationship between a mother and her twin sons from the perspective of the son, Esau who has ‘made it’.  Although he has become successful, Esau always feels that he pales in comparison to his brother Jacob, ‘Cobby’ who charms more than achieves. Esau feels that his Mother accepts Cobby’s behaviour and, I suspect, feels that Cobby is societies’ favourite despite his constant misdemeanours. Within these twenty-two pages, Arthurs anatomizes this dysfunctional mother and two sons dynamic through the descriptions and observations of their starkly different paths in life. Arthurs uses this primary family relationship plus Esau’s relationship with his wife to cover issues and themes such as poverty, absent fatherhood, sex, colourism and wealth disparity in Jamaica (phew - in just twenty-two pages!)

Although ‘Mash Up Love’ within the context of this story refers to romantic/ eros love gone wrong, when I think of the phrase ‘Mash Up Love’ I think of the many ways we as flawed humans love imperfectly. As a reader, I felt that Mama loved her sons but perhaps didn’t make Esau feel as though he was loved equally due to her arguable lenience towards Cobby’s behaviour. I felt that Mama’s love was ‘Mash Up’ but unintentionally not mashed up or cut up equally for each child. Arthurs uses the title ‘Mash Up Love’ and the Biblical story of Jacob and Esau as a motif in this short story to represent the Mash Up Love that exists in this family. Cobby’s love was also ‘Mash Up’. Cobby turns love into composites. He seems to be able to compartmentalise love and gives love in many different ways (e.g. with words and with eros love) to many people (particularly women.) His love is spread widely but thinly. Esau’s love is also ‘Mash Up’ as he is not completely honest with his wife.

Arthurs structures this story by slowly drip feeding the reader information. At first glance, I thought the main protagonist was a girl or woman and the protagonist’s name is not confirmed until page thirty-nine. We are greeted with a flashback of Esau’s childhood with Cobby and Mama and are gifted with slow drips of information about Esau’s life such as his acquired social standing, life with Ann-Marie and family history which provide further insights into Esau’s relationship with his brother Cobby. Esau succinctly encapsulates his brotherly relationship dynamic, declaring that “everyone preferred my brother. People respected me but they preferred him.”[2]

As difficult as it is for me to refrain from discussing all the wonderful short stories contained in Arthurs’ novel, particularly the short story On Shelf, I will briefly discuss one more – the last story, Shirley from a Small Place (from page 200-235.) Soon into reading Shirley from a Small Place, I couldn’t help but draw parallels and wonder if this short story was based on a certain Barbadian superstar singer and beauty mogul (I hope we’ll get another album at some point lol.) I won’t say too much, as this short story really is a very special treat and is filled with layers upon layers. But I was moved by the themes covered in this short story such as: mental health; celebrity and fame; body image; racism within the context of exoticism; abusive relationships; substance abuse; beauty standards; sexuality (particularly within the context of patriarchy) and mother-daughter relationships.

Arthurs uses Shirley’s character to highlight the dark sides of the music industry. Shirley is a troubled character who I believe simply yearns for simplicity. Celebrity is an odd phenomenon. One can be ‘known’ all around the world but not ever truly known by anyone. Shirley muses that “[t]he ability to be seen and seen and then seen some more, was in itself a performance.”[3] This certainly elevates Shakespeare’s famous “All the world’s a stage”[4]  quote. We play many roles throughout our lifetime but being a celebrity seems to involve giving a constant performance on the world stage, with very few really loving you. Shirley notes that her assistant and a “love interest”[5] from a music video would go on a “smoke break”[6] together. There is clearly a closeness that Shirley does not have with them.

I was both saddened and angered that Shirley changed her nose.  “Her nose had been her former stylist’s idea”[7] “but no one warned Shirley about how raw she would feel afterwards. . .  It felt like such an invasion, and one personally inflicted, which made her pain all the more confusing.”[8] Arthurs uses Shirley’s nose change as a beautifully sad way of addressing the erasure of identity that leads to deep pain and confusion due to the pressure to conform to western beauty standards.

Arthurs opens up an interesting discussion on sexuality within the context of patriarchy as Shirley continues to muse that “she could get used to plenty of things, including feeling comfortable, even bored, with her own sexuality”[9] and that “At first…she feigned comfort with her sexuality.”[10] As a feminist who supports women expressing themselves however they please, I can’t help but feel that sexual expression should truly belong to the person or people expressing it – that sexual expression should be for one’s own self and not done at the command of “the people in charge”[11]. Arthurs does not describe the gender of the ‘people in charge’ but I think it is likely that most of the ‘people in charge’ she describes are probably men.[12]

I feel that despite the celebrity chaos around her, Shirley yearns for simplicity. Arthurs writes that whilst sitting at the pool in the luxurious house she bought for her mother, “Shirley decides – and this realization comes to her slowly – to be happy. Yes, she will be happy.”[13]  Shirley describes Jamaica as “the only place in the world where she could truly relax”[14] and that “Jamaica was the place she went to feel unburdened.”[15]

There is an unease that both Shirley and her mother seem to have with Shirley’s fame and success. Arthurs writes, “Nevertheless, Shirley’s career, the highs and lows of fame, have been far better and far worse than both mother and daughter could have hoped for.”[16] The fame has given them a lifestyle they both could only have dreamed of, but the fame seems to have come with plenty of nightmares, too. Shirley muses that the rooms and furniture in their fancy house “felt like an unwelcome stranger pulling her into a hug.”[17] Alexia Arthurs uses this story to provide a beautiful lamentation and gently sorrowful meditation on fame. Fame has brought money and many experiences the ordinary person could only dream of, but the trade-off has been steeply expensive and we are left feeling uncertain like Shirley’s mother who ponders “what is to become of Shirley in the same way one might listen carefully to hear the note that signals the end of a song.”[18]

Read this short story to see the humanity behind the fame.

Masterful use of Jamaican Creole:

Alexia Arthurs’ command of Jamaican Creole is masterly. Arthurs writes with the authority of a language speaker who has been immersed in this specific language speaking community. In 2020, we had a Caribbean Links event on Caribbean Languages with Professor Hubert Devonish, Professor of Linguistics at the University of the West Indies, Mona Jamaica at the Jamaica Language Unit. Many Caribbean Languages were discussed and explained. You can watch a video from the event here and purchase the book, Language, Race and the Global Jamaican by Hubert Devonish and Karen Carpenter here.

The use of Jamaican Creole by the characters in Alexia Arthurs’ novel How to Love a Jamaican is joyful and authentic throughout and I particularly love the language use in Shirley from a Small Place because it showcases the way in which many Jamaicans are able to switch from speaking English to Jamaican Creole so effortlessly. With Yaheem and Heidi, Shirley speaks English but then easily switches to Jamaican Creole when talking to her mother when she goes back to Jamaica.

I enjoyed the ease with which mother and daughter spoke to each other in their native language. I felt an intimacy between them. I find the lexicon of Jamaican Creole to be poetic. 

Notable quotes:

-            “Di soup taste good, Mommy.”[19]

-            “Yuh like di yellow yam? Di helper find ah nice piece ah di market day ’fore yestideh. I use di rest ah it inna di soup.”[20]

-            “Fram when you likkle pickney yuh miserable”[21]

-            “You nuh see you too mawga?”[22]

and (on the issue of Shirley’s nose, after Shirley’s denial of doing anything to it)

-            “Yuh going fi look inna mi face an’ lie to me like seh me ah idiot?”[23]

If you want to learn more about Jamaican Creole and its codification, you can read the book Jamaican Creole Syntax by Beryl Loftman Bailey. Further information can be found here.

I always enjoy reading books or listening to music written or sung authentically in any Caribbean language. Apart from Dancehall, I must give a special shout out to the musical genres of Zouk and Haitian Kompa. It always warms my heart to see Caribbean languages written by Caribbean language speakers.

Conclusion:

To conclude, How to Love a Jamaican is a very special book which I would highly recommend. These short stories are filled with relatability, complex themes, skilled use of Jamaican Creole and three-dimensional characters who are remarkably able to jump off the pages of these small stories. I’ll say it again – the ability to fit multi-layered themes into short stories is a gift and Alexia Arthurs is indeed a gift to the literary world. Long may she continue to keep writing!

[1] Quote taken from How to Love a Jamaican by Alexia Arthurs, Story – Shirley from a Small Place, page 219.

[2] How to Love a Jamaican by Alexia Arthurs, Mash Up Love, page 48.

[3] Ibid., Story – Shirley from a Small Place, page 205.

[4] As You Like It by William Shakespeare, Act II, Scene VII Line 139.

[5] Ibid., Story – Shirley from a Small Place, page 200.

[6] Ibid., Story – Shirley from a Small Place, page 207.

[7] Ibid., Story – Shirley from a Small Place, page 209.

[8] Ibid., Story – Shirley from a Small Place, page 209.

[9] Ibid., Story – Shirley from a Small Place, page 213.

[10] Ibid., Story – Shirley from a Small Place, page 213.

[11] Ibid., Story – Shirley from a Small Place, page 213.

[12] https://www.ukmusic.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Misogyny-in-Music-UK-Music-FINAL.pdf  paragraphs 27, 28 and 29 and The Major Record Companies Have a Big Gender Problem (rollingstone.com)

[13] How to Love a Jamaican by Alexia Arthurs, Story – Shirley from a Small Place, page 235.

[14] Ibid., Story – Shirley from a Small Place, page 214.

[15] Ibid., Story – Shirley from a Small Place, page 214.

[16] Ibid., Story – Shirley from a Small Place, page 215.

[17] Ibid., Story – Shirley from a Small Place, page 234.

[18] Ibid., Story – Shirley from a Small Place, page 235.

[19] Ibid., Story – Shirley from a Small Place, page 215.

[20] Ibid., Story – Shirley from a Small Place, page 215.

[21] Ibid., Story – Shirley from a Small Place, page 222.

[22] Ibid., Story – Shirley from a Small Place, page 231.

[23] Ibid., Story – Shirley from a Small Place, page 210.