Customer Reviews

Brown Girl, Brownstones

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is a worthy and ambitious debut novel about the Barbadian immigrant experience in Brooklyn, New York, by a little known African-American author, whose own parents emigrated from Barbados during World War I. The author herself grew up in Brooklyn. She attended Brooklyn College, graduating Phi Beta Kappa in 1953, a time when most Americans, much less a black woman, did not attend college. This drive to succeed is a testament to her Barbadian heritage.

It is from that heritage that the author drew in creating her characters and developing their rich mix of personalities, as she re-created the early Barbadian immigrant experience in post-depression era Brooklyn. The book focuses on the Boyces, a nuclear family consisting of Silla, the ambitious, hard working, ever striving mother, Deighton, her charming, pie-in-the-sky dreamer of a husband, and their two daughters, Ina, the older and more passive one, and Selina, the bright, rebellious one. The novel follows the fortunes of the Boyce family from the late 1930s until shortly after Word War II. It tells of their lives, their hopes, and their dreams.

The book beautifully details the experience of the early Barbadian immigrants in Brooklyn and their adjustment to their new environment. They brought with them their own ideas, their own ways of doing things, and a work ethic that is hard to beat. Quite frankly, Barbadians revitalized areas of Brooklyn that were dormant. Theirs was an almost traditional immigrant experience, but for the racism that they were to encounter here. Still, they did not allow that to stand in their way from getting ahead and going for the American dream.

This book neatly encapsulates that immigrant experience through the Boyce family. One gets a very good sense of what the experience of the Barbadian immigrant was like through the interactions of the Boyce family with others in their community, as well as with each other. While Silla Boyce typifies the Barbadian community in terms of goals and work ethic, dreams and desires, with its focus upon material acquisition, her husband, Deighton, does not. Their separate dreams and desires conflict and act as a catalyst for a tragedy that would mar intra-familial relationships.

It is also a coming of age story, as Selina struggles to find her place in the new society and rich community her people are creating. She also struggles to find her place in the larger community, as well, stepping out of the insular one into one where racism is a factor. She is also interested in exploring her roots and heritage. Still, being who she is, the reader believes that Selina will not founder. Though Selina would hate to admit it, she is the one who is most like her mother, a fact of which she is not cognizant throughout most of the novel. She is truly her mother's daughter, in thought and deed.

This is a richly satisfying novel. The author captures the "Bajun" way of speaking in all its rich, expressive cadence. While some may find this "Bajun" dialect, which is interspersed throughout the novel, difficult to follow or distracting, it is this richness of language that give this book its very distinctive feel. Moreover, while the author may sometimes get too bogged down with overly descriptive detail, she paints a vibrant picture of a segment of society that has too long been ignored in literature. Those who like reading about the immigrant experience will enjoy this book, as will those who are interested in discovering worthy authors that have receded from public memory.

This book deals with an aspect of the African American experience which gets very little notice outside of the black community, namely that of the black immigrant. We hear a lot about immigrants from Europe who came here and helped build america. However, immigrants also came here from places like Barbados, Jamaica, Trinidad, Panama, etc. Most whites will identify themselves as irish, polish, italian, german, etc ancestry. However, African Americans seem to be allowed only one ethnicity. It's as if in the darkness only one variation can be discerned. Like most immigrants, the Barbadians described in this book are highly motivated towards material success for themselves and their children. As seen in this book, sometimes this quest occurs at all costs even at the expense of outward expressions of love and affection. For example, Silla is referred to as 'the mother' throughout. As in many families, the ambitions of the parents for their children don't coincide with the children's as seen in the conflicts between Selena and her mother. Unlike white immigrants, their ambitions also run afoul of racism.

I found the narrative sometimes overly descriptive, especially in the preoccupation with sunlight and shadow. The brownstones and the streets often seemed like dark and brooding places.

My maternal grandparents were from Bardados, while my paternal grandfather was from St. Eustacia. I also grew up in Brooklyn (in a brownstone). Therefore, the landscape and the characters were very familiar. In fact, Claremont Sealy and Clive Springer are probably my cousins! A most enjoyable and thought provoking book. I look forward to reading more of Ms Marshall's book.

To all of the misguided souls who slammed this beautiful book, I feel sorry for you. Brown girl, Brownstones is a wonderful book for so many reasons but too many to go into now. Paule Marshall's piece is unique in that it gives a voice to a community so often left out of fiction writing: the Caribbean community in the United States. As a first generation Caribbean-American who grew up in Brooklyn, I was blown away the first time I read this book and found such startlingly familiar portrayals of the culture I claim. The dialogue flowed naturally and, although the chracter portrayals of some (esp. Deighton and Silla) might strike some as too extreme, my own experiences and even the testimony of sociological studies show that Marshall was right on the mark. The fact that the book didn't have a bang up ending is totally natural in that the book is a coming of age story of a young woman (how many people have a conclusive grip on who they are at 18) who must figure out her multipe identities as a young woman, a Black woman and and Afro-Caribbean woman not tied to her parents' homeland but not completely of this country either. Marshall's work is too poignant to be dismissed at first glance. I would encourage all those who couldn't find the beauty in Brownstones the first time to give it a second chance. To dismiss this book is not only dismissing the premiere work of Paule Marshall but also to miss out a rare glimpse into the dynamics of a community that is within our gates.

i'm horrified at these reviews. marshall has put together a brilliant novel rich in prose and dialogue, an amazing work overall that should earn her the right to be identified with among the most important writers in the last half century. its funny how so much of our society is dumbed down to the point that a work of art is trashed because either people cant relate to it or dont grasp or understand it. if they dont understand words that the writer uses, they call that writer 'pretentious'. if the writer uses the language to its fullest capacity, they call the writer 'overly descriptive'. its quite a grim state of affairs when only these kind of comments prevail for such a transcendent novel. in today's lazy Western world of drive-thrus, TV dinners, and condensed 30 minute television shows with commercial breaks, people only want things easy, straight to the point. this is why our society is calcified.
if you dont understand what Marshall is doing here, either take your loss silently and move on, or, better yet, research! read more! try and understand lyricism and poetics, the beauty of creatively accurate description. that's just the thing; we're so a-creative these days its opprobrious. to the self-professed white jewish girl in the suburbs who will probably never return to read this, there are cultures and worlds outside of your own that in fact do affect you. anyone who walks around thinking otherwise is foolish. immigrants havent played a role in the development of modern America? please. Brown Girl, Brownstones is not only important for its beauty, but also for its capturing of Barbadian immigrants in Brooklyn around the time of World War II. the dialect and cadence of their speech is vibrantly bottled in the novel; someone said its hard to read. thats because its a transcription of a different dialect! if you take the time to read it, you'll eventually hear it in your head. the ability to transcribe different accents and dialects is quite a skill, and one that Marshall is not without.
anyways, if you're a true lover of amazing prose and writing in general, you'll appreciate this novel. if you aren't, at least dont embarrass yourself by haranguing others with ignorance.

A terrifically heartwarming story about a young girl's coming of age as first generation American from Barbados. The "silence" of Marshall's main character, Selina, resounds in this coming of age child of immigrants tale unfolds. Partially based on Ms. Marshall's own life, the story holds warmth, humor and tragedy for almost anyone willing to explore the human condition.

A definite must-read for post-modernists.

Browngirl, Brownstones by Paule Marshall is a book about a young girl that grows up to be a beautiful woman not knowing exactly what she wants to be but as long as its not what her mother is she is okay. She lives day-by-day learning something new, but not able to trust her own family. Her father has always been her role model no matter what people thought about him not even what her own mother thought. It must be sad to know that your mother treats your father mean. Selina and her mother never did get along that well because they have so many differences that separated them day by day. Selina's mom is a strong woman and does not let anyone nock her down! She sets her mind to what she wants no matter what gets in her way. Selina's mother just wants what's best for her daughters Ina and Selina.
The book is straight out forward to the reader there are some words that might be hard to understand, but you can always us the dictionary. It's sort of a long book, but it's easier and can go faster than shorter books. At the beginning, it's somewhat hard to understand what's going on because the writer is explaining the background of where Selina is at as well as what she is looking at.
My interest in this book goes very far because it teaches me many things to always be what I want to be and not someone else wants me to be. Never let anyone stop you from accomplishing your dreams even if you feel like its taking up most of your time. Also, that you shouldn't rely on some one else because your not always going to have them around to help you.

This is an interesting look at the hurdles a young girl faces in New York City in the 40s and 50s. Not only does she come to terms with who her parents are as Caribbean immigrants, but she also strives to create her own identity in the face of conformist expectations. She also seeks to estabish her place as an African American among strong ethnic ties in the Barbados community. It resonates at many different levels.

This is a worthy and ambitious debut novel about the Barbadian immigrant experience in Brooklyn, New York, by a little known African-American author, whose own parents emigrated from Barbados during World War I. The author herself grew up in Brooklyn. She attended Brooklyn College, graduating Phi Beta Kappa in 1953, a time when most Americans, much less a black woman, did not attend college. This drive to succeed is a testament to her Barbadian heritage.

It is from that heritage that the author drew in creating her characters and developing their rich mix of personalities, as she re-created the early Barbadian immigrant experience in post-depression era Brooklyn. The book focuses on the Boyces, a nuclear family consisting of Silla, the ambitious, hard working, ever striving mother, Deighton, her charming, pie-in-the-sky dreamer of a husband, and their two daughters, Ina, the older and more passive one, and Selina, the bright, rebellious one. The novel follows the fortunes of the Boyce family from the late 1930s until shortly after Word War II. It tells of their lives, their hopes, and their dreams.

The book beautifully details the experience of the early Barbadian immigrants in Brooklyn and their adjustment to their new environment. They brought with them their own ideas, their own ways of doing things, and a work ethic that is hard to beat. Quite frankly, Barbadians revitalized areas of Brooklyn that were dormant. Theirs was an almost traditional immigrant experience, but for the racism that they were to encounter here. Still, they did not allow that to stand in their way from getting ahead and going for the American dream.

This book neatly encapsulates that immigrant experience through the Boyce family. One gets a very good sense of what the experience of the Barbadian immigrant was like through the interactions of the Boyce family with others in their community, as well as with each other. While Silla Boyce typifies the Barbadian community in terms of goals and work ethic, dreams and desires, with its focus upon material acquisition, her husband, Deighton, does not. Their separate dreams and desires conflict and act as a catalyst for a tragedy that would mar intra-familial relationships.

It is also a coming of age story, as Selina struggles to find her place in the new society and rich community her people are creating. She also struggles to find her place in the larger community, as well, stepping out of the insular one into one where racism is a factor. She is also interested in exploring her roots and heritage. Still, being who she is, the reader believes that Selina will not founder. Though Selina would hate to admit it, she is the one who is most like her mother, a fact of which she is not cognizant throughout most of the novel. She is truly her mother's daughter, in thought and deed.

This is a richly satisfying novel. The author captures the "Bajun" way of speaking in all its rich, expressive cadence. While some may find this "Bajun" dialect, which is interspersed throughout the novel, difficult to follow or distracting, it is this richness of language that give this book its very distinctive feel. Moreover, while the author may sometimes get too bogged down with overly descriptive detail, she paints a vibrant picture of a segment of society that has too long been ignored in literature. Those who like reading about the immigrant experience will enjoy this book, as will those who are interested in discovering worthy authors that have receded from public memory.

I probably wouldn't have ever heard of Brown Girl, Brownstones if it hadn't been assigned for the African American Literature by Women course I'm taking this semester. However, it has a deserved place among novels about the immigrant experience and coming of age.

Brown Girl, Brownstones follows Selina Boyce from girlhood into college. In this time, Selina struggles over her allegiance to her father, Deighton, who romantically tries on careers in which he has no realistic future, and her mother, Silla, whose pragmatic obsession with purchasing their leased brownstone causes her to act ruthlessly. Between them and the outspoken cast of supporting characters, Selina has many options for how to model her own life.

The pages of Brown Girl, Brownstones fly by quickly, assisted by the realness of the characters' voices. I especially enjoyed Marshall's use of Barbadian dialect, which helps to locate the novel in a particular time and place.

Brown Girl, Brownstones is certainly a good choice for teenagers, but also for adults who are interested in stories set between the depression and the '50s.

I just finished the last page of this book and my goodness it was wonderful. There were many things this book explored. West Indian Blacks in America. Relationships between older and younger generations. Race relations. The list is endless.

Silla the mother (THE mother) was an absolute gem of a character. I kept wavering on my feelings toward her. Love, hatred, sympathy. All of these emotions swelled up as I became better aquainted with her character. Some of her actions left me shocked and angry but at the heart of all of her deeds (some an aliance with Satan himself), she did what she had to do for her family.

I also loved Deighton. Actually I felt so bad for him. My heart felt all of his frustrations and grief.

Ina and Selina, two such very different women. Ina more like her father and Selina a carbon copy of the mother. I wanted Ina to develop a backbone and do what would maker her happy. Selina, my goodness what a complex young lady. I could relate to her and her desire to be her own woman.

I only wish Ms. Marshall could have made the ending a little different. Maybe have an epilogue in which we find out what has happened to everyone.