If I Survive You, by Jonathan Escoffery

Jonathan Escoffery has succeeded in writing a series of short stories so connected that the entire work can be taken for a novel. Additionally, these memorable stories are both sad and funny, deal with a young person’s identity crisis (both racial and cultural), racism, homelessness, family discord, financial disaster, and Miami culture.

Most of the stories focus on Trelawney, the younger son of Jamaican immigrants, and the only person in his nuclear family to have been born in the US. At school, no one thinks he looks or sounds Jamaican, because he is not. Additionally, his complexion suggests Hispanic or Dominican, and it turns out that in this country, society has a need to pigeon hole people’s ethnicity, so at times, Trelawney has to announce himself as Black. The absurdity of colorism is very well portrayed.

Escoffery’s writing style is impressive, and I am personally in awe of how he portrayed Trelawney’s desperate poverty and homelessness without crushing the reader with overwhelming sadness. For instance, at one point, Trelawney’s job is certifying people for public housing, all the while being homeless himself. While having compassion for these people in need, Trelawney is also torn between being totally honest, and taking care of himself. Some of the people Trelawney deals with are very funny!

There were several characters in these stories, and I admired the way all the voices were distinctive. Trelawney’s narrative is particularly distinctive,, the way he puts you in his shoes, while his father’s is in a Jamaican dialect. His mother’s language suggests that she has assimilated more, while his brother Delano can switch back and forth. There is also his cousin Cukie, whose story is also riveting. 

I recommend this wholeheartedly. Thank you to Netgalley and Farrar, Straus, Giroux for introducing me to Jonathan Escoffery.

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I have been lucky, lately, choosing books blindly.