Reviews

While I enjoyed most of the essays in the book the problem with the format is that they are all short and I found that I struggled to be really immersed in them because they were over too quickly.

A collection of short stories written by immigrants and children of immigrants in the UK - this was something that I was very interested in reading. The collection of essays is diverse coming from a variety of backgrounds. The quality of the essays vary as well as the authors are not all writers - some are actors, activists, authors and poets.

This made for an interesting read - like with collections of essays - some landed and some missed.

Individual ratings follow:

NAMASTE - 4 star - good fun to start the collection.

A GUIDE TO BEING BLACK - 4.5 stars. Excellently written - see example “While being black can be a shared experience, not all black experiences are the same.”

MY NAME IS MY NAME - 5 stars - very poetic. This left a lump in my throat

YELLOW - 3.5 stars. Not as moving or well written but still I learned quite a bit.

KENDO NAGASAKI AND ME - 3 stars. A more specific personal essay about the bullying and racial slurs the authors felt. I liked it and it highlighted the need for diverse representation but I didn't know the names of the characters or actors so I was a little lost.

WINDOW OF OPPORTUNITY - 3 stars
Seemed more positive about the immigrant experience and living in a small community, even if it was not multicultural. A nice hopeful little essay. Nothing particularly new for me and not greatly written. Fans of the actor will probably enjoy it more.

IS NISH KUMAR A CONFUSED MUSLIM? 2 stars - it was ok but I didn’t see much insight or point here. The essay stretched the point being made

FORMING BLACKNESS THROUGH A SCREEN - 4 stars
Essay ended a little abruptly but was really good. Exploring identity through the American pop culture monolith since you have little which is home grown and specific to you - yeah that hit close. Just wish the essay has been a little longer tbh.

BEYOND GOOD IMMIGRANTS - 3.5 stars

“But the horrified furore around Chua’s parenting memoir show that beneath the Western awe at Chinese educational attainment is a profoundly uncomfortable fear of a seemingly alien culture.”

I think I like these serious essays more which quote more than personal facts and put the experience into a larger narrative and context. The essay was good but I didn’t follow all the actors names so it got a bit specific

YOU CAN'T SAY THAT! STORIES HAVE TO BE ABOUT WHITE PEOPLE - 5 stars

“Speaking to Nabila, she told me she had never written about an Indian heritage … character before. … nobody has ever explicitly given her permission…”