Another Brooklyn

Some first person voices are just so naturally nostalgic, like you’re sitting around a campfire listening to someone telling you a story.

“The year my mother started hearing voices from her dead brother Clyde,” or “But Gigi was the first to fly.” So many moments to hold onto in this novel, each an introduction to another tale, or a memory you can’t wait to listen to and run off down the street to share it for yourself.

The voice of August is so real and clear and poetic that one forgets there’s even a writer behind it. This close first-person… show more.

This book was a powerful reminder of how capable our younger selves are and how much wiser, at times, than the adults around us. The poetic prose quality had me hooked and the wistful truth that some of our most defining friendship bonds are temporary. Evoked in lucid, beautiful sentences the vital, essential connections between August, Sylvia, Angela, and Gigi usher the group through adolescent challenges in a tough neighbourhood. On the streets of Brooklyn in all seasons the young teenagers rely on each other as they hone their skills to negotiate life’s harsh realities away from their parents’ gaze.… show more.

Woodson’s narrative comprises a mix of genres (poetry, fiction, and non-fiction) to capture the real and imagined memories of her childhood in Brooklyn and the fictional town of Sweet Grove, Tennessee. This book encompasses so much of what is fascinating about nostalgic memory. While nostalgia generates feelings of happiness and hope, these memories often emerge in times of sadness, loss, and uncertainty. Woodson’s exploration into the lives of four black girls as they navigate friendship, the joys, and perils of youth, and the possibilities and broken promises of the future is a rare and compelling take on how nostalgic memories… show more.