How to Love a Jamaican

Stories

By: Alexia Arthurs

Narrated by: Janina Edwards, Adenrele Ojo, Dominic Hoffman, James Fouhey

Length: 7 hrs and 3 mins

Publisher's summary

“In these kaleidoscopic stories of Jamaica and its diaspora we hear many voices at once. All of them convince and sing. All of them shine.” (Zadie Smith)

An O: The Oprah Magazine "Top 15 Best of the Year"

A Well-Read Black Girl’s Pick

Tenderness and cruelty, loyalty and betrayal, ambition and regret - Alexia Arthurs navigates these tensions to extraordinary effect in her debut collection about Jamaican immigrants and their families back home. Sweeping from close-knit island communities to the streets of New York City and midwestern university towns, these 11 stories form a portrait of a nation, a people, and a way of life.

In "Light-Skinned Girls and Kelly Rowlands", an NYU student befriends a fellow Jamaican whose privileged West Coast upbringing has blinded her to the hard realities of race. In "Mash Up Love", a twin’s chance sighting of his estranged brother - the prodigal son of the family - stirs up unresolved feelings of resentment. In “Bad Behavior”, a couple leave their wild teenage daughter with her grandmother in Jamaica, hoping the old ways will straighten her out. In "Mermaid River", a Jamaican teenage boy is reunited with his mother in New York after eight years apart. In "The Ghost of Jia Yi", a recently murdered student haunts a despairing Jamaican athlete recruited to an Iowa college. And in “Shirley from a Small Place”, a world-famous pop star retreats to her mother's big new house in Jamaica, which still holds the power to restore something vital.

Alexia Arthurs emerges in this vibrant, lyrical, intimate collection as one of fiction’s most dynamic and essential authors.

Audiobook Table of Contents:

LIGHT-SKINNED GIRLS AND KELLY ROWLANDS, read by Adenrele Ojo

MASH UP LOVE, read by Dominic Hoffman

SLACK, read by Janina Edwards

BAD BEHAVIOR, read by Janina Edwards

ISLAND, read by Adenrele Ojo

MERMAID RIVER, read by James Fouhey

THE GHOST OF JIA YI, read by Janina Edwards

HOW TO LOVE A JAMAICAN, read by Dominic Hoffman

ON SHELF, read by Janina Edwards

WE EAT OUR DAUGHTERS, read by Janina Edwards and Adenrele Ojo

SHIRLEY FROM A SMALL PLACE, read by Janina Edwards

Praise for How to Love a Jamaican:

"A sublime short-story collection from newcomer Alexia Arthurs that explores, through various characters, a specific strand of the immigrant experience." (Entertainment Weekly)

“Gorgeous, tender, heartbreaking stories.... Arthurs is a witty, perceptive, and generous writer, and this is a book that will last.” (Carmen Maria Machado, author of Her Body and Other Parties)

"Vivid and exciting...every story rings beautifully true." (Marie Claire)

©2018 Alexia Arthurs (P)2018 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

“In vibrant, evocative prose, Arthurs brings these characters, and their varied experiences of a shared home, to life.” (BuzzFeed)

“With its singular mix of psychological precision and sun-kissed lyricism, this dazzling debut marks the emergence of a knockout new voice.” (O: The Oprah Magazine)

I just love short stories!

But I love short stories about black people of the Diaspora. It's very interesting how they live and how they handle different social issues. Good read!

Jamaicans needed

Realistic, and well put together storlines.
However the authenticity of the Jamaican accent was lacking .

Good listening

I really liked listening to this but I wasn't a fan of the "Jamaican" accent lol

Accents are distracting

This recording features several poor Jamaican accents by non-Jamaican artists. For this reason, you may want to choose to read this book rather than listen.

Beautiful stories, horrible inauthentic Jamaican accents

As a Jamaican living in the diaspora, I loved the stories in this book and felt that they were very authentic and well written. I really disliked the readers of the stories. Their imitation of Jamaican accents were so horrible I often had to translate things in my mind and it made it so painful to listen to their voices.

I found myself yelling corrections at the readers and it made it difficult for me to relax and enjoy the stories.

Easy to relate to as a Caribbean woman

I didn't know what to expect from this collection. It delivered on the experience of Jamaican migrants and relationships between parents and children. The stories were interesting, offering something to relate to without trite or cliche.

Love it!!!!

Some of these stories were just like my childhood. I felt like these mothers were my mother. I recommend that Jamaican mothers listen to this book to help them understand there kids.

True story!!

I loved the stories, but disliked the fake accents of the readers. There are Jamaicans with true accents who would have loved to narrate this book.

Great stories with cringeworthy accents!!!

This was a painful listen for a Caribbean ear, but the stories are worth reading!

Terrible attempt of patois.

The horrible pronunciation of the Jamaican dialect is an atrocity. No effort made and very disappointing.