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A review by alexkerner
If I Survive You by Jonathan Escoffery
5.0
BOOKER PRIZE 2023 LONGLIST
IF I SURVIVE YOU by Jonathan Escoffery
*****
Here’s to giving a book a second chance. I had listened to the audiobook back when it was longlist for the National Book Award and bailed after 40 percent, just not engaging with the wide range of perspectives that the book is told from. When it was longlist for the Booker Prize I felt I should give it a chance and grabbed a library copy. It was brilliant and I read it in a few days.
IF I SURVIVE YOU follows a Jamaican family that had fled their home for Miami in hopes of greater prospects. Economic precarity and constant weather-induced destruction turned their lives into constant struggles to make ends meet. Although pitched as an interconnected series of stories, the book has the cohesion of the novel. Mostly told from the perspective of the family’s youngest son Trelawny, his supports and community are constantly disturbed by external events. His father leaves with his elder brother, playing favourites and constantly doubting Trelawny’s worth. He goes to school to a highly regarded midwestern college only to find upon graduating the labour market ravaged by the Great Recession. He looks for meaningful work to put a house over his head, but he’s always uncertain whether he can survive. Interspersed are chapters told by his father, his brother and cousin, each overing additional detail to the family’s hopes and failures.
Escoffery writes precise and propulsive prose, masterfully presenting each distinct voice and describing the ever-present landscape of the characters’ lives. At times it did feel a bit too workshopped, but mostly this was just a joy to read. It is a very male novel, focusing on issues of fatherhood (and failure of fathers) and presenting a mostly male gaze. But that doesn’t take away from the broader picture Escoffery is trying to convey. It also offers another important voice to the growing number of “2008 recession” novels, an event that continues to pervade into the lack of opportunity for American millennials.
Definitely makes my shortlist if I were to decide.
#bookstareadsthebooker2023 #bookstagramreadsthebooker #bookerprize #bookprizes #literaryfiction #igbooks #americanliterature #recessionliterature #libby #ebooks
IF I SURVIVE YOU by Jonathan Escoffery
*****
Here’s to giving a book a second chance. I had listened to the audiobook back when it was longlist for the National Book Award and bailed after 40 percent, just not engaging with the wide range of perspectives that the book is told from. When it was longlist for the Booker Prize I felt I should give it a chance and grabbed a library copy. It was brilliant and I read it in a few days.
IF I SURVIVE YOU follows a Jamaican family that had fled their home for Miami in hopes of greater prospects. Economic precarity and constant weather-induced destruction turned their lives into constant struggles to make ends meet. Although pitched as an interconnected series of stories, the book has the cohesion of the novel. Mostly told from the perspective of the family’s youngest son Trelawny, his supports and community are constantly disturbed by external events. His father leaves with his elder brother, playing favourites and constantly doubting Trelawny’s worth. He goes to school to a highly regarded midwestern college only to find upon graduating the labour market ravaged by the Great Recession. He looks for meaningful work to put a house over his head, but he’s always uncertain whether he can survive. Interspersed are chapters told by his father, his brother and cousin, each overing additional detail to the family’s hopes and failures.
Escoffery writes precise and propulsive prose, masterfully presenting each distinct voice and describing the ever-present landscape of the characters’ lives. At times it did feel a bit too workshopped, but mostly this was just a joy to read. It is a very male novel, focusing on issues of fatherhood (and failure of fathers) and presenting a mostly male gaze. But that doesn’t take away from the broader picture Escoffery is trying to convey. It also offers another important voice to the growing number of “2008 recession” novels, an event that continues to pervade into the lack of opportunity for American millennials.
Definitely makes my shortlist if I were to decide.
#bookstareadsthebooker2023 #bookstagramreadsthebooker #bookerprize #bookprizes #literaryfiction #igbooks #americanliterature #recessionliterature #libby #ebooks