Staceyann Chin

This collection is absolutely stunning. The interplay of the political and the personal is so masterfully done and the poetry itself is perfect. You can feel the rhythm of the poems even through the page, which is sometimes hard for me with prose poetry. Also, the alliteration is awesome. It just flows so well and gorgeously. It truly is a bittersweet collection of poetry about the devastating and beautiful parts of surviving in the world today, especially as someone considered "other." The collection really captures a sense of fullness of experience, even the love poems are tinged with a sort of self-awareness that I found refreshing. All-in-all, it feels like a woman outlining the fullness of her being and contextualizing her existence with all the sense of purpose and doubt therein. It's beautiful -- the calls to action, the quiet moments, the wrestling with self-definition. All of it is stunning.

I highly recommend this book to any poetry lovers, as well as anyone who really wants to really feel what it's like to survive in a world not made with you in mind. It's challenging, and full of righteous fury, sorrow, and love wrapped in fantastic language by a fantastic poet. Read it.… (mehr)

Please note that I gave this book 4.5 stars, however since Goodreads does not have half stars I rounded this up to 5 stars.

This book has a lot of things going on with it, but I really did enjoy it. There were some flow issues here and there and the epilogue honestly did not even feel part of the preceding chapters. That said, I really enjoyed this one and am glad that I read it.

The Other Side of Paradise is Staceyann Chin's memoir about being born in Lottery, Jamaica. A half Jamaican and Chinese girl, she and her older half brother Delano are raised by their maternal grandmother. Staceyann is a strong willed little girl who loves her brother and grandmother, but still believes that one day her mother will come back for them from Canada.

From there the Other Side of Paradise showcases Staceyann's constantly changing living situation. When the family has to move from their little home and in with Delano's uncle's family the family of three has a hard time settling in. Staceyann is defiant and upset that the house that they live in is not welcoming and keeps clashing with her aunt. Staceyann as a little girl realizing that her and her brother are not really wanted and are treated differently than the aunt and uncle's children was so sad. And the memoir showcases how though Staceyann thinks of things as fair are not the way things are going to go for her or her brother.

Eventually she is split up from her grandmother and brother when her mother comes back to Jamaica and causes her and her brother to be put out of her uncle's home after. Seeing Staceyann shuffled from place to place and eventually just staying with a family she is not related to all of the while telling herself that she will do great things so that her father and mother will regret leaving her is heartbreaking. What is worse is that she has no way to stay in touch with her grandmother or brother. And when Staceyann eventually runs into her brother again he is distant and acts as if he really doesn't want to know her.

One thing as a reader that I was puzzled over was that when Staceyann meets the man that she believes is her father, why he and her mother had such a bad falling out. Staceyann's mother does not want her to see him and says that if he knows where she is then he will steal her away. Of course nothing like that occurs and I puzzled at how Staceyann seemed to be more forgiving of her mother than her father in the memoir. I think him denying that he was her father and still giving her money for her schooling which had to have been harsh was horrible. But, Staceyann finds out that her mother takes calls from her brother Delano sometimes, but has done nothing at all to stay in touch with her. Her mother also left her at a home where she had to defend herself from being raped. It seems as if for Delano he was more aware of how lacking the adults were in their world and he seemed to shrink from doing or saying too much of anything to have anyone notice him which would have prompted them to maybe kick him out. Staceyann seems to still have a belief in her mother which does not seem warranted at all.

Through all of the living tribulations that Staceyann goes through, we also have her coming to the realization that she is not bisexual as she once assumed, but is a lesbian. Being gay in Jamaica in the 1990s as she was, was definitely a big thing and though many caution her from being so loud and outspoken about it she refuses to hide her sexual preferences. Those parts of the story were sad as well as many as Staceyann's friends and classmates shunned her. Frankly I don't think I could have been as brave as she was in certain parts of this story.

The writing was sharp though another comment I have is that parts of the book are written in Jamaican patois. It did make it hard to figure out what people were saying at times, but I managed to figure it out after a while and then I didn't notice it. However, anytime we switched from the progression of the memoir to someone "speaking" it was a bit jarring.

I have to say this aspect of Jamaica was fascinating to me. I had no idea that so many Chinese and other nationalities had settled there and had intermarried or at least had children with Jamaicans. It felt like a whole new community I had no idea existed had sprung up.

The epilogue made me sad though. It seems as if Staceyann found her own way in the world, and has a lot of friends, but her family situation is still tenuous at best.… (mehr)