Rainbow Milk: an Observer 2020 Top 10 Debut
Autor Paul Mendezen Limba Engleză Paperback – 4 feb 2021
Imaginea de început ne poartă în Jamaica anilor '50, alături de Norman Alonso, un fost boxer care își părăsește țara pentru promisiunea Marii Britanii, doar pentru a se izbi de realitatea dură a rasismului și a bolii. Această ancoră istorică oferă greutate poveștii lui Jesse McCarthy, un tânăr care, la cumpăna dintre milenii, fuge de dogmatismul religios al Martorilor lui Iehova și de o familie destrămată. Reținem finețea cu care Paul Mendez descrie acest proces de dezrădăcinare: Jesse nu doar că părăsește un oraș deprimat, ci își lasă în urmă întreaga structură de credințe pentru a se lăsa purtat de ritmul Londrei, unde supraviețuirea capătă forme neașteptate prin artă, muzică și muncă sexuală.
Stilul este unul visceral, pendulând între trauma izolării și euforia descoperirii plăcerii. Subliniem modul în care Rainbow Milk reușește să fie, simultan, o cronică generațională și o confesiune intimă despre corpul negru într-o societate care încearcă constant să îl definească sau să îl limiteze. Amintește de Spirits in the Dark de H. Nigel Thomas prin explorarea presiunilor sociale care paralizează individul aflat la intersecția dintre rase și clase diferite, dar se diferențiază prin accentul pus pe eliberarea sexuală și pe redefinirea spiritualității în afara canoanelor tradiționale.
Această lucrare reprezintă o evoluție organică a preocupărilor autorului; dacă în Do You Believe in Life After Loss? Paul Mendez analiza modul în care identitatea queer ajută la navigarea prin doliu, în Rainbow Milk el extinde această perspectivă, transformând pierderea credinței și a apartenenței într-un spațiu fertil pentru creație și auto-inventare.
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Specificații
ISBN-10: 0349700583
Pagini: 353
Dimensiuni: 128 x 196 x 26 mm
Greutate: 0.3 kg
Editura: John Murray Press
Colecția Dialogue Books
Locul publicării:London, United Kingdom
De ce să citești această carte
Credem că acest roman este esențial pentru cititorii care caută o voce autentică în literatura contemporană despre identitate. Veți câștiga o înțelegere profundă a ceea ce înseamnă să îți construiești propriul centru de gravitate atunci când religia și familia te resping. Este o recomandare fermă pentru cei care au apreciat perspectivele din I Can't Date Jesus, oferind însă o dimensiune narativă mai amplă, întinsă pe mai multe generații.
Despre autor
Paul Mendez este o voce nouă și urgentă în literatura britanică contemporană, recunoscut pentru curajul cu care abordează teme sensibile legate de comunitatea queer și experiența persoanelor de culoare. Născut în regiunea Black Country din Anglia, Mendez s-a inspirat parțial din propriul context de viață pentru a scrie Rainbow Milk, romanul său de debut care a captat atenția criticilor prin onestitatea sa brută. Înainte de succesul cu acest volum, el a contribuit la lucrări colective care explorează reziliența și speranța în fața pierderii, consolidându-și reputația de scriitor preocupat de nuanțele profunde ale condiției umane și de intersecționalitate.
Recenzii
Exquisite descriptions of the body, of longing and lust, set against the recent history of the nation. Proof once more there can be no discussion of English history that isn't also a discussion of blackness, queerness and class
Sensuous and thrillingly well written
Eye-poppingly frank, urgent and fresh
Moving and memorable, Rainbow Milk heralds Mendez as an original new voice in queer fiction
This book is marvellous. It is beautifully written, balancing fine observation and pathos, sexuality and high culture, struggle with triumph. It's pacy, witty and gentle. I loved every minute of reading this, and I am excited for its future readers
Mendez's powerful coming-of-age story tackles subjects from immigration and religion to sex and race as nineteen-year-old Jesse struggles to make sense of the world
When did you last read a novel about a young, black, gay, Jehovah Witness man from Wolverhampton who flees his community to make his way in London as a prostitute? This might be a debut, but Mendez is an exciting, accomplished and daring storyteller with a great ear for dialogue. Graphic Erotica Alert! Don't read this book if you like your fiction cosy and middle-of-the-road
Rainbow Milk is a rich, beautifully-crafted story, uncompromising in its exploration of identity and privilege. The characters are portrayed with such tenderness and honesty - I know that I'll be thinking about them for years to come
The kind of novel you never knew you were waiting for. An explosive work that reels from sex, to sin, to salvation all the while grappling with what it means to black, gay, British, a son, a father, a lover, even a man. A remarkable debut
Vivid, moving and packs a visceral punch
Mendez's remarkable debut is a fervent, hope-filled and ultimately uplifting coming-of-age story
This is a debut novel but it reads like a pro . . . His prose is cool, slippery and cuts clean to the quick. He takes you places unfamiliar and confusing and with a sentence connects you to the core of the character's mind. It's a fast ride in an astonishingly cool car . . . His sensual explorations of desire are mixed together with withering condemnations of British imperialist ideology, folded in with tender reflections on parenting, and what it means to be young, queer and black in the UK today
One of the most widely anticipated books of 2020 (The Observer named Mendez as one to watch), Rainbow Milk is a coming-of-age story that touches on racism, the Windrush generation, sexual identity and love. Beautifully written, this is a must for your reading list this month
[Rainbow Milk] is more real and generous than most contemporary novels.Ultimately, this is a searing account of the human need for physical connection. Mendez never shies away from the melodrama of sex, the cymbal-crashing opera of desire. He is a unique new voice in the British novel
A novel that does what great debuts do - bringing an originality of voice and vision to the form, refreshing our ideas of what is possible in fiction . . . a novel of huge power and emotional impact, written in language that is sharp, distinctive and often beautiful. 2020 has been a year of superb debuts and Rainbow Milk is among the best
Urgent, original and heartbreaking
A debut novel set to make a name for its author, Rainbow Milk is a tightly-written but wide-ranging exploration of race, sexuality, class and religion
Daring, dexterous, exciting and accomplished, Mendez is a writer with plenty to say
The prose is muscular, the sex graphic, the dialogue sharp . . . Rainbow Milk is a complex and intersectional treatment of race, class, sexuality and sex work and a powerful, thrilling and accomplished debut novel
A fearlessly groundbreaking debut
A state of the nation novel . . . extraordinary . . . the voice of the character is so strong . . . Paul Mendez is now a significant new figure in the literary world . . . James Baldwin would be very proud of this book
Exhilarating . . . Rainbow Milk is an important and ambitious book . . . a bravura piece of writing, with echoes of Andrea Levy's Small Island . . . think Barry Jenkins's Moonlight but set in the West Midlands, with Bibles instead of crack . . . if Rainbow Milk is anything to go by, Mendez looks set to shake up the literary establishment in the most thrilling way
A fearless and hopeful account of one black man's entry into adulthood that explores identity, family and sexuality against the backdrop of the Windrush legacy . . . this is a wonderful read from an exciting new voice in British fiction
A very beautifully and tenderly written account of what it was like to come to the "mother country", expecting a welcome and finding prejudice
Rainbow Milk is a bold and raw novel . . . memorable and affecting
Described as "explosive", "beautiful", "original", this exciting debut is all of these things . . . Full of lust, longing and pathos
Mendez's novel, based on his experience of growing up black and gay in a West Midlands Jehovah's Witness community, is one of the most exciting debuts of recent years. His vivid prose elevates and brings to life an already extraordinary story
There's something particularly thrilling about discovering a great debut, and none this year could be more electric than Paul Mendez's Rainbow Milk. Sex, blackness, class, religion, male bodies, self-understanding and finding a community are all explored in new ways with startling assurance
Full of tenderness and soul, it's a book about shame and humiliation and how you overcome it
Hard-hitting and lingers long after the final page
New writer Paul Mendez explores sexuality, race, class and religion across generations and cultures in his semi-autobiographical debut novel Rainbow Milk
Brilliant
Fearless
Unflinching, revelatory
A page turner with a lot of heart
I was more than happy to spend time reviewing Paul Mendez' Rainbow Milk, an ambitious, clever and candid debut
This sharp coming-of-age novel explores exactly what it means to be a young, queer Black man in Britain. It's bold, fearless
and fresh
'Sensuous and thrillingly well written' Observer
In the Black Country in the 1950s, ex-boxer Norman Alonso is a determined and humble Jamaican who has moved to Britain with his wife to secure a brighter future for themselves and their children.
At the turn of the millennium, Jesse seeks a fresh start in London - escaping from a broken immediate family, a repressive religious community and the desolate, disempowered Black Country - but finds himself at a loss for a new centre of gravity, and turns to sex work to create new notions of love, fatherhood and spirituality.
'A fearless and hopeful account of one black man's entry into adulthood that explores identity, family and sexuality against the backdrop of the Windrush legacy . . . this is a wonderful read from an exciting new voice in British fiction' Independent