Full of subtle poignancy...each story is a trenchant exploration of race and class,vividly conveying the tension between social codes of masculinity and the vulnerable,volatile self'New YorkerA National Book Award Finalist'Comfort'has been longlisted for the 2021 Sunday Times Audible Short Story AwardIn the nine unforgettable stories of A Lucky Man,Jamel Brinkley explores the unseen tenderness of black men and boys: the struggle to love and be loved,the invisible ties of family and friendship,and the inescapable forces of race,class and masculinity.A teen intent on proving himself a man at an all-night rave is preoccupied by watching out for his impressionable younger brother. A pair of young men who follow two girls home from a party face the uncomfortable truth of their desires. An imaginative boy from the inner city goes swimming in the suburbs,and faces the effects of privilege in ways he can barely grasp. And at a capoeira conference,two brothers grapple with their painful family history.Moving,lyrical and keen-eyed,A Lucky Man captures the inner lives of men and boys caught between hope and expectation,duty and desire.
MEDIA REVIEWS
Publisher: Profile Books LtdISBN: 9781788163224Number of pages: 256Weight: 217 gDimensions: 198 x 129 x 15 mmEdition: Main
MEDIA REVIEWS
Urgent,intimate narratives,framed as confessions and quests,and edged with quickening threat. Everything that is good can be ruptured with as little as a single accidental touch...not only heralds the arrival of a fully formed,entirely distinctive new voice but reinvigorating the short story itself. In the end,there's no doubt who the lucky ones are: we,the readers.Wonderful...Brinkley's characters and their actions probe the questions at the heart of masculinityFull of subtle poignancy...each story is a trenchant exploration of race and class,vividly conveying the tension between social codes of masculinity and the vulnerable,volatile selfThis is the rare debut that introduces not a promising talent but a major writer,fully formed. Jamel Brinkley is brilliant,the real thing,a revelationSensuous,sensual,sharply observed stories. A really striking debut.One of the many striking qualities in Brinkley's stories is how precarious his male characters tend to be...extraordinaryThrough pages of peerless prose and startlingly sharp sentences,what emerges is a constantly reframed argument about the role and power of masculinityNot only a standout debut for the year,but also a testament to what can be achieved in a short story.With equal parts precision and poetry,these nine audacious stories step into the minefields awaiting boys of color as they approach manhood in Brooklyn and the Bronx - testing the limits of relationships,social norms and their own definitions of masculinity.Brinkley's depictions of love's many varieties are subtle and deeply observant...With this observant book,Brinkley demonstrates an enviable capacity for narrative compression. In the space of 25 pages,he's capable of creating complex and memorable emotional worlds. This is a very hard thing to do,but in A Lucky Man he pulls it off in one story after the next.A stunning debut...Set in Brooklyn and the Bronx,in poor neighborhoods and on school campuses,these tales are imbued with pathos,sexuality,and moments of violence and tenderness. With this memorable collection,Brinkley emerges as a gifted and empathetic new writerAn assured debut collection of stories about men and women,young and old,living and loving along the margins in Brooklyn and the Bronx...It's difficult to single out any story as most outstanding since they are each distinguished by Brinkley's lyrical invention,precise descriptions of both emotional and physical terrain and a prevailing compassion toward people as bemused by travail as they are taken aback by whatever epiphanies blossom before them. A major talentJamel Brinkley's stories tell of absence and abandonment,always edged with pain and beauty...a magnificent debutAn extraordinary short story collectionIn these nine memorable stories Brinkley shakes each of his main characters in turn,and we,as we read,are shaken too...both subtle and strikingBeautifully written and movingly insightful.
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