Brown Girl in the Ring

The strongest parts of this book have to do with the wonderful details about the relationships between women–the central protagonist and her mother and grandmother. There is nothing simple about these relationships, and they ring true. The book is worth reading for this stuff alone.

I didn't enjoy the plot, or the “magical realism” (is it really still magical realism when a spell makes somebody invisible?–seems like just magic); I suspect that so-called “urban fantasy” isn't my favorite flavor of fantasy, which is no fault of the book, but I also think that the plot and setting weren't strong enough to hold the wonderful characters. Two characters talking?–GREAT BOOK. Two characters out in the “magical” world?– YOU LOST ME.

I'll likely try another book by Hopkinson, since this was her first, just because I liked the characters so much...

Brown Girl in the Ring is the story of a dystopian, futuristic Toronto that's falling apart from the neglect of the larger authorities around it - in other words, it's very contemporary, only with added elements of Caribbean supernatural folktales added in.

All that is background, though. The story that really matters here is that of a young woman coming into her own, taking the beliefs and responsibilities of her ancestors' culture and making them work for her in a modern, contemporary way. It's a complex and interesting character-based work, and it's hard to describe what makes it work as well as it does.

This was my third Hopkinson, and I LOVED the two others (Falling in Love with Hominids and Midnight Robber). I really struggled with this one - particularly the first 2/3rds - and in the end it's my least favorite of the three I've read. It's dystopian with magical elements following one main character. The plot and magical elements are strongest in the last third and this is what saved it for me. I think I missed Hopkinson's gift at storytelling that I found at the forefront of her short story collection and novel I read. I'm still in awe of Hopkinson and this one isn't going to stop me from reading her other works.

Just a casual review of some of my thoughts. Explicit spoilers are discussed within.

I thought the setting was very interesting to read about. The city of Toronto in the near-future, abandoned and transformed into a giant slum that suffers from homelessness, poverty, and intense gang violence throughout. I don't think it's quite as sci-fi as the book emphasizes it to be, but still intriguing to see read about daily life for the citizens and how it's shaped the new emerging culture within.

I was especially intrigued by the indigenous Caribbean elements of mysticism throughout. The mystical aspects of the book with the grounded reality of Toronto was a contrast that I thought was really intriguing and added to my enjoyment of the book's setting. A lot of the main cast speaks in Caribbean dialect as well (I'm not sure if pidgin or creole? I get the terms mixed up a lot). It was kind of hard to read at first, but I grew into it as the story progressed. It made it feel authentic, and I'm glad the author decided to use the natural way these people speak. It made it feel much more atmospheric.

Ti-Jeanne was a frustrating character to read about for most of the book. I know the story deals with her maturing, so it might just be me. For much of the beginning of the book, it really does feel like Ti-Jeanne was a childish woman, almost like a hormonal/rash teenager stuck in a woman's body. I think for me, the effect seemed heightened because she was raising a child. It was one of those dramatic irony sort of things, where you see Ti-Jeanne refusing to listen to her grandmother, but you know in the pit of your stomach that Gros-Jeanne is right, and you feel like something is bad is going to happen...which it does. I know it's a classic story of a younger person not listening to an authority figure, realizing their mistake, and then trying to fix it. I also know it's a realistic struggle of what single mothers trapped in poverty go through, and I wouldn't want any of that changed to be “nicer”. So, for me, I feel like this is something completely subjective and something that I'm being a bit too hard on. I had to remind myself of this when I kept getting frustrated with Ti-Jeanne.

But I will say this: I think it's the ending that made me the angriest. I personally couldn't believe that Tony was framed as someone who was a “redeemable” character. He's, by far, the character I hated the most in this book. Even more than Rudy. Ti-Jeanne's attachment to him despite his manipulation and superficial motivations was understandable, even if it didn't make it less frustrating to read about. That happens to people in real life, so I 100% understood. But I just couldn't believe that the narrative painted Tony as someone worthy of forgiveness? Not going to lie, I was expecting Tony to die at some point in the story. I was hoping he would die. A lot of the conflict that Ti-Jeanne has to go through is because of Tony. He's the one that manipulates her (and I don't feel like I'm exaggerating here; I feel like Tony legitimately emotionally manipulated Ti-Jeanne by acting like he cared about her and playing on her feelings to hide his true intentions.) He kills her grandmother, the one person in Ti-Jeanne's life who cared for her and loved her, and then tries to kill Ti-Jeanne herself! All for selfish reasons, to save himself, with no regards to Ti-Jeanne and her baby.

And in the end? Tony comes and apologizes to Ti-Jeanne and tries to pay his respects to Gros-Jeanne.

In this situation, I would hope to God that Ti-Jeanne would yell at Tony and tell him to never come near her or her grandmother's grave ever again, if not outright attack him. But no, because he “wants to do penance,” Ti-Jeanne lets him pay his respects. At least she seems to be done with him, relationship-wise? She moves on from him. Which is a breath of relief, but I'd hope to everything holy that Ti-Jeanne would break up with a man who killed a beloved family member and then tried to kill her.

The thing that gets me is how the book frames it as he should be forgiven. Now, I could very slightly accept it if Ti-Jeanne still pined for him after everything he had done (emphasis on slightly). After all, that's human nature. Sometimes, we can't help but hold onto to the feelings we have for people, especially if we feel like they're our first love or there was some special connection with them, like Ti-Jeanne has with Tony. But it's the fact that the book itself tried to frame it as Tony being a redeemable person who should be forgiven is ridiculous. A character at the end named Jenny convinces Ti-Jeanne to let Tony pay his respects to Gros-Jeanne. Baby, Ti-Jeanne's child who Tony is the biological father of, had a habit of always crying around Tony, as if he knew he was trouble. At the end, he stops crying around Tony, as if he “forgives” his father or something like that. The narrative itself frames Tony as a person worthy of forgiveness. To my recollection, he doesn't do a single thing worthy of being forgiven. In my opinion, I don't know what Tony could've done to make himself redeemable other than killing Rudy himself and maybe dying afterwards. I will be 100% honest, when I read that ending, I put the book down for a while because I was kind of pissed. Don't tell me that a crap person should be forgiven. You had better show me, and make it worthy, because I find murdering a family member to be a very hard thing to easily forgive.

But that's probably just me, and tells a lot about the kind of person I am in real life.

This book has a great premise, an interesting setting, and a really great exploration of indigenous mysticism and magical realism. But it's bogged down by some frustrations with the characters and narrative framing. Some of this is subjective on my end, and some of it hampers my enjoyment of the book. I'd rate it 3.5/5, maybe closer to 3.