Asali SolomonRecensioni

I loved the writing and read this in one sitting. But if you prefer your books to have some resolution you will find this one frustrating.

2.5 stars. The plot didn't go much of anywhere, and there was very little resolution in the end.

A slim character study of Selena, past and present. Set at a dinner for her husband who has just lost a political campaign, Selena fears the knock on the door of the FBI related to her husband's campaign. This fear and uncertainty causes Selena to look at her life since her marriage and to recall an intense relationship with a woman when she was in college. Well written and character driven.

Normally I prefer a little more plot, but this was a wonderful character-driven novel that leaves you pondering.

2022 pandemic read. Local author, local setting. My reading goal for 2022 is to try to read more books either by people who don’t look and/or live like me, or are about people who don’t live/look like me. Glad to have found and read this one. In parts, it took me back to people and places I’d long forgotten. This book is many things, but ultimately, I came away thinking of it as a love story.

I felt that the story of Lisette and Selena was unnecessarily truncated. The story lines just felt incomplete, not only at the end of the book, but throughout. The writing was good, but I wanted a bit more development.

The story of Lisette and Selena spans many years even though they haven’t kept in touch over the years. There relationship lasted for only 4 months yet somehow they made indelible impressions on each other.

I’m not sure this makes sense. There is the underlying story of Lisette and her husband and his potentially nefarious political career. We don’t know what happens with all of that at the end of the book.

And we also don’t know what happens to Selena and Lisette at the end either. Maybe we can imagine?

This was an odd one. While I enjoyed it overall, I also felt like it never really took off...as if it were one prolonged exposition. I loved the beginning of the book up until Kenya's parents' separation and once again when she goes to visit Johnbrown on his farm, but a lot of the middle I found difficult. Perhaps Bahni Turpin's teenage voices were a little too good (and while she remains my favorite reader, her Caribbean accent verged on a Russian accent) during that segment, but I found the dialogue between the girls hard to stomach. And I'm glad that one scene with Teddy Jaffrey didn't go any further than it did. Still, it was a touching--and often heartbreaking--coming of age story with some excellent family dynamic written in, and I'll be interested to see what Asali Solomon's next step will be.

I enjoyed this book but felt a little adrift when it came to the story itself. I really liked how Solomon developed the characters and I was intrigued with the context, but I had a hard time following along with Kenya and her experiences. I would find myself really into a particular section of the book only to find that it was over and the story was moving on. I would have read a longer book if there was been more detail put in. Did I love this book? No. Would I read something else by Asali Solomon? Probably.

At just eight years old, Kenya Curtis feels cast out by her West Philadelphia classmates. Though most of her classmates are black, she’s one of the only kids who celebrates Kwanzaa and can’t say the Pledge of Allegiance. Kenya’s feelings of isolation only grow as her parents, Johnbrown and Sheila, drift apart and she enters adolescence in the new environment of a suburban private school.

More than anything, the strength of Asali Solomon’s Disgruntled lies in its balance. Pulled too far toward any of its themes, the novel could have felt too young adult, too political or too philosophical. Instead, Solomon finds a sturdy base in a relatable coming-of-age story and counters it with Johnbrown and Sheila’s evolving beliefs, both of which Kenya comes to question through the course of the novel.

Though she’s often critical, Kenya views the lifestyles she sees around her—including her own—with a balanced and questioning eye based on what she’s been taught. We see this as her parents raise her to distrust Christianity, particularly “the Christianity of tacky white people”, while Sheila makes it clear that “being fanatically religious was a reasonable choice for black people who didn’t know any better.” When Kenya meets a wealthy, suburban white Christian, she is understandably baffled and works to untangle her preconceptions.

“Only when he finished The Key would Johnbrown go back to school and get what he called a square job. (‘Do you know what cats used to call jobs in the fifties?’ he asked Kenya ‘What?’ ‘Slaves.’ ‘You calling me a slave, Johnbrown?’ said Sheila. Cats have jobs? thought Kenya.)”

Solomon’s skill shines in her ability to make the novel’s layered themes and ideas palatable without ever sacrificing depth. Questions of race, class and religion weave their way into Disgruntled‘s pages and surface as Kenya is routinely reminded of their place in her life, often appearing as a mix of humor and pointed observation. Smart and wonderfully narrated, Disgruntled is full of the frank commentary I’d love to see more of in fiction.

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Here's the thing with this book: it lacks focus. It's an easy read and mildly enjoyable, the characters have potential. Parts of the story are certainly interesting and could stand on their own if given the time. But in this coming-of-age story, events are too quickly swept away and forgotten; a new direction is given and zoom, years pass by. The story lacks clear purpose, and though this may reflect the protagonist's issues with her own identity, it does not make for a good story.

Certainly there is considerable talent shown in Disgruntled. The story is heartbreaking, riveting, and even funny at times. The characters could have brought things together if only I'd known their destination. I believe with a tighter story, Solomon could shine. She had me at moments, but in the end, I just felt lost.

This is a fine coming-of-age story, filled with humor and twists and great characters. Kenya is the only child of Johnbrown and Sheila, living in Philadelphia with her activist parents and with the students in her school thinking she's got a weird name and she celebrates Kwanzaa, so "Ooga Booga" becomes her nickname as Kenya has a hard time finding commonality with the other fourth graders. The family's social and political life centers around a bunch of comrades calling themselves "The Seven Days", and Kenya loves the weekly Saturday night meetings where strategies are discussed, music played, and ideas debated. The group disbands when Kenya's father and one of the Days become romantically involved and Kenya becomes a scholarship student at a ritzy girl's school. Johnbrown disappears from her life, living on the run doing political actions, and the next time Kenya sees him, he is in prison. Her mother Sheila remarries a jerk and Kenya decides to live with her father for the summer of her senior year in high school. She has high expectations for college, and also gains three new half siblings on the farm her father shares with his partners, the black woman from the Days and a white woman. It's The Summer That Changes Everything. The reader can only hope that author Solomon has a sequel in the works. Full of humor and pain, the story flows vividly and is over too fast.½

Disgruntled by Asali Solomon. Disgruntled displeased and discontented; sulky; peevish. This book about a young black girl whose parents get divorced, goes to a private girls school,and ends up being put in jail after her drug dealing live in boy friend stashes marijuana in her room. The book left me disgruntled. In theory the reader is supposed to enjoy and gain insights from the journey and struggles the protagonist undergoes.The writer acts as a guide giving commentary by shaping what is presented reader. Asali Solomon does a marginal job at this task. As readers experience life from the perspective of the child, then the adolescent, and finally the young adult girl. What doesn’t happen is a connective narrative through the book. Events just happen without an overall context. Events happen and their significance is never explained or examined. The books ending is anti climatic and wholly dissatisfying.

I appreciated the quiet restraint of the book but then again the author pulled away from some scenes that really needed to be there--opting instead for narrative summary. Some events are far too rushed, which dampens the impact the book might have had with more flushed-out scenes. What I liked very much about the book, on the other hand, was the way Solomon builds these characters into believable, flawed, interesting people, who are navigating their world in interesting ways and making mistakes along the way.

This is a collection of short stories about young people, 12 to 30. They described their attempts to deal with awkward situations told with compassion, honesty, and with full access to their inner fantasies and fears. It might not be great literature but very good and numerous of its characters linger in my mind.

When I first saw the book jacket for "Get Down," I was instantly taken back to my childhood in the '80 and days of watching Yo MTV raps and break-dancing. What Asali Solomon manages to do in "Get Down" is not only capture the 1980's perfectly,she also creates stories that drawn in the reader and makes you care about the characters and the situations they are going through. "Get Down" consists of seven stories and although each story is special in its own right, there are some factors that are similar in several of the stories. First, in all but two of the stories, the main character is usually a black girl who attends private school. Secondly,most of the stories take place in Philadelphia or surrounding areas. Lastly, all of the stories have some sort of element of surprise. Although I thoroughly enjoyed all of the stories in "Get Down," my two favorites stories were "Twelve takes Thea" and "Save me." In "Twelve take Thea," we are introduced to Thea Brown, a girl who is trying to fit in at her private school which is proving to be hard since she is one of two black girls at the school. The title itself is a play on the title "Tracie Marie Takes Twelve." In the course of the story, Thea and her best friend Nadja go to the same private school then Nadja mother sends her to another school. Nadja leaving Thea alone forces her to make new friends but Thea is torn between her loyalty to her and Nadja friendship and her new friends. I enjoyed "Twelve takes Thea" because it was a great coming of age story and it also was a deeper story about acceptance and loyalty as well. My second favorite story in "Get Down" was "Save Me." I was intrigued by this story mainly because of the technique Solomon used with this story. "Save Me" use a type of narration in which the narrator makes the reader the main character of the story by saying what is happening to you and how you felt about it. This type of narration is especially interesting since "Save Me" is about a trip to Christian summer camp and in the story the point is made the the campers have to experience God for themselves. As with the other stories in "Get Down," the experience shared by the character is one the mostly anyone can relate to and again, this story deals with acceptance and loyalty. I also like that Solomon let the reader draw their own conclusions in reference to how the story would end. It is refreshing to now have a story end in a predictable way or have a chance to use your own mind to determine how the character's fate will play out. Overall, this was a wonderful debut by Asali Solomon. The stories in "Get Down" were funny, sad, rich, and realistic. Although this book dealt with different characters in different way, the two theme I gathered from this book was how important acceptance and loyalty can be. Although we may feel it is not that important or may even say that it it is not important, at the end of the day,we still want to feel like we belong to something.

When I first saw the book jacket for "Get Down," I was instantly taken back to my childhood in the '80 and days of watching Yo MTV raps and break-dancing. What Asali Solomon manages to do in "Get Down" is not only capture the 1980's perfectly,she also creates stories that drawn in the reader and makes you care about the characters and the situations they are going through. "Get Down" consists of seven stories and although each story is special in its own right, there are some factors that are similar in several of the stories. First, in all but two of the stories, the main character is usually a black girl who attends private school. Secondly,most of the stories take place in Philadelphia or surrounding areas. Lastly, all of the stories have some sort of element of surprise. Although I thoroughly enjoyed all of the stories in "Get Down," my two favorites stories were "Twelve takes Thea" and "Save me." In "Twelve take Thea," we are introduced to Thea Brown, a girl who is trying to fit in at her private school which is proving to be hard since she is one of two black girls at the school. The title itself is a play on the title "Tracie Marie Takes Twelve." In the course of the story, Thea and her best friend Nadja go to the same private school then Nadja mother sends her to another school. Nadja leaving Thea alone forces her to make new friends but Thea is torn between her loyalty to her and Nadja friendship and her new friends. I enjoyed "Twelve takes Thea" because it was a great coming of age story and it also was a deeper story about acceptance and loyalty as well. My second favorite story in "Get Down" was "Save Me." I was intrigued by this story mainly because of the technique Solomon used with this story. "Save Me" use a type of narration in which the narrator makes the reader the main character of the story by saying what is happening to you and how you felt about it. This type of narration is especially interesting since "Save Me" is about a trip to Christian summer camp and in the story the point is made the the campers have to experience God for themselves. As with the other stories in "Get Down," the experience shared by the character is one the mostly anyone can relate to and again, this story deals with acceptance and loyalty. I also like that Solomon let the reader draw their own conclusions in reference to how the story would end. It is refreshing to now have a story end in a predictable way or have a chance to use your own mind to determine how the character's fate will play out. Overall, this was a wonderful debut by Asali Solomon. The stories in "Get Down" were funny, sad, rich, and realistic. Although this book dealt with different characters in different way, the two theme I gathered from this book was how important acceptance and loyalty can be. Although we may feel it is not that important or may even say that it it is not important, at the end of the day,we still want to feel like we belong to something.

authored by a college friend

excellent collection of short stories. truly insightful narrative about the inner lives of these characters. very impressed!