How to Love a Jamaican

Stories

By: Alexia Arthurs

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

“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!

Jamaican words

if you're going to have the readers pronounce the Jamaican words at least train them or let them hear the words that they're trying to pronounce before they pronounce it incorrectly. several of the words in the Jamaican dialect were pronounced incorrectly.

Too many short stories

Very disappointed as a Jamaican because the stories leave you hanging. Too much cursing and vulgar language for my ears (in-necessary). Poor Jamaican accents. Too much going on for me.

Not at all what I expected

This book was disappointing. As a Jamaican American, I hoped to hear authentic Jamaican voices bring these stories to life. Not only were he accents completely off base, but the stories weren’t very compelling either. I didn’t expect to feel a connection to everyone’s own oral history, but it was significantly underwhelming as a Jamaican, as a black woman, and simply a lover of the arts.

Horrible Jamaican dialect narration

I enjoyed most of the short stories.
As a Jamaican I totally disliked the narration of the Jamaican dialect!! I’m sure there are Jamaicans that would have jumped at the chance to narrate, myself included. I rolled my eyes and cringed so much during those parts that I had to rewind the story to listen again to the parts I missed because of the distraction.

Well written and authentic in word

The imagery of setting, depth and originality of the character development is intriguing.
However…..
Use of actual Jamaican voices would have been more enjoyable. Particularly as so much of the real Patois dialect is appropriately utilized throughout the work.

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.