A review by washed_guapi_lee
A Lucky Man by Jamel Brinkley

3.0

I read most of these stories last summer. Finally finished the last couple. Over that span of time, the literati have loved on this book. I do not. There are so many beautiful sentences, but very few stories that will stay with me. While it seems a lot of the praise is about the nuanced ways Brinkley explores masculinity within Black/Latinx men in NY in the late 90s-00s, it just feels like a lot of dancing around the harm of how and why we express it. Also the stakes get developed so well, only to arrive at soft landing after soft landing. I never felt like the consequences or ethics around circumstances did justice to the expository parts of the shorts. "J'ouvert, 1996" was my favorite though, followed by the title story.