What We All Long For [Paperback]

Dionne Brand (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 25, 2008

Dionne Brand powerfully delves into uncharted aspects of urban life, the bittersweetness of youth, and secrets families try to hide. Tuyen is an aspiring artist and the daughter of Vietnamese parents who’ve never recovered from losing one of their children while in the rush to flee Vietnam in the 1970s. She rejects her immigrant family’s hard-won lifestyle, and instead lives in a rundown apartment with friends—each of whom is grappling with their own familial complexities and heartache. 

In turns thrilling and heartbreaking, Tuyen’s lost brother—who has since become a criminal in the Thai underworld—journeys to Toronto to find his long-lost family. As Quy’s arrival nears, tensions build, friendships are tested, and an unexpected encounter will forever alter the lives of Tuyen and her friends.

Gripping at times, heartrending at others, What We All Long For is an ode to a generation of longing and identity, and to the rhythms and pulses of a city and its burgeoning, questioning youth. 

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Despite their hip exteriors, the four Toronto 20-somethings at the heart of Brand's solid novel all struggle with issues of race and identity. Tuyen, a lesbian artist, is the daughter of Vietnamese immigrants who still grieve for the son they lost in Vietnam. Carla, a biracial woman, grapples with a misplaced sense of responsibility for her younger brother, Jamal, whose rap sheet is more than Carla can fix. Oku struggles under the watchful, and often resentful, eye of his father, a Jamaican immigrant who feels both threatened and frustrated by his son's poetic aspiration. Jackie, a young black woman whose family came to Toronto from Halifax, vicariously mourns the loss of her parents' youthful dreams. Although the friends have an unspoken rule never to talk of family, the problems of home spill inevitably into their daily lives, culminating in an explosive moment when the families finally meet. Brand's slice-of-life style is often at odds with her melodramatic subject matter. But the emotional depth of her characters provides original insight on the young urban dweller. (Nov.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review

“Superb . . . Brand’s best novel yet.”—National Post

“Brand . . . translates our desires and experiences into a language, an art that allows [her] to voice that which we live, but could not utter or bring to voice until she did so for us.”
—The Globe and Mail

“Brand’s most accomplished novel yet. . . . both credible and incredible.” —Quill & Quire

"Brand is quite subtle and nuanced in her analysis of her characters." --Toronto Star

 

"...a wonderfully layered and polyphonic novel...[Brand's] writing enfolds a generosity or openness that enables it to transcend its 'artifice.' These qualities are on display in abundance in this moving novel of how families, histories and geographies shape the nature of dreams." --Vue Weekly (Edmonton)

 

"What We All Long For is a watershed novel." --National Post

 

"Brand's text is gifted with unavoidable questions of what partnership means." --Herizons

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 318 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin; 1st edition (November 25, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312377711
• ISBN-13: 978-0312377717
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #812,250 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fabulously written, June 4, 2005

By 

Katherine (Waterloo, Ontario Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: What We All Long For (Hardcover)

The complexity of the characters and how every story intertwines so beautifully kept me absolutely riveted to this book! The ending took a somewhat unexpected, yet full-circle turn; making me leave the book feeling both closure, and wondering what would happen next. I dreamt about these characters for days afterwards.
The fact that it was based in Toronto was a bonus too. Nice to recognize the places described.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Will the Past Let Us Be, July 14, 2009

By 

Beverly Jackson "avid reader" (Huntersville, NC) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: What We All Long For (Paperback)

In Dionne Brand's ambitious novel, What We All Long For, the reader is introduced to four Toronto 20-something characters as they explore issues of race and identity and provide friendship to each other. All of the main characters are children of immigrant parents who migrated to Toronto for a "better" life. And while they have agreed to never talk about family, it is their family histories that have shaped who they are and contribute to their identity issues.

Tuyen, a lesbian artist of Vietnamese parents, struggles to be a loyal daughter and sister but wants to be accepted for who she is. Oku struggles with showing his poetic side and walking on the darker side of the law, anything to be out from under the thumb of his Jamaican father. Jackie, a biracial woman, cannot move forward as she feels committed to saving her brother when he does not want to be saved. And Carla is weighed down by her parents not being able to follow through on the dreams that they brought with them from Halifax.

Brand does an excellent job of developing the characters and evoking the essence of Toronto. The reader will see Toronto through the eyes of these young, urban people but the storyline felt stifled as action is slowed to wait on the characters being developed. At times, the reader is left hanging when the storyline of one character quickly changes to another character.

The ending was an unexpected twist as the reader did not see it coming. But it is this unforeseen ending that causes the families to meet. But, alas, the moment comes and goes too quickly for the reader and the story is over.

I recommend this book to fans of Dionne Brand and readers who like the themes of race, identity, and immigration.

Reviewed by Beverly
APOOO BookClub
July 12, 2009

4.0 out of 5 stars A poignant effort, May 11, 2009

By 

Alana D. (West Chester, PA, United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: What We All Long For (Paperback)

Dionne Brand takes the youth of Toronto and brings them to vivid life in this novel about several twenty-somethings living in the city and the way their lives do - and do not - meet.

I felt the main characters to be well-developed and interesting, though some of the secondary characters could have had a bit more depth to them. The motifs of youthfulness, race, and what it is to live in a city were brought to bear skillfully, as was the over-arching theme of longing.

All in all, I enjoyed this book.