Brown Girl in the Ring

I had thought that Red Birds would easily be my Book of the Month until, just a couple of days later, I started reading Brown Girl In The Ring. Now I will be absolutely amazed if anything else I read during October will manage to top Nalo Hopkinson's writing! I picked this one on a whim because I needed a fifth Jamaican author for that country's WorldReads post (coming on the 5th November) and was attracted to Brown Girl In The Ring by its seriously bizarre cover art. Essentially a dystopian novel set in a ghettoised Toronto, Hopkinson draws in elements of West Indian mythology, Caribbean magical realism and glimpses of oh-did-I-really-just-read-that gruesomeness to create an astoundingly breathtaking tale. This book was actually published twenty years ago, but it feels new and vibrant and very relevant to today. How had I never heard of Nalo Hopkinson before?!

At the heart of Brown Girl In The Ring is a young woman, Ti-Jeanne, who, when her baby was born, felt compelled to return to her grandmother's home leaving the child's drug-dealer father behind. Gros-Jeanne, the grandmother, is a wise woman and healer. She prepares natural remedies from what can be grown or bartered in desolate Toronto, putting her knowledge of traditional Jamaican medicine to good use while also striving to learn about the new (to her) northern plants. The Jeannes are strong Black women although the younger Jeanne does not always believe sufficiently in herself. Learning oneself is a recurrent theme as is choosing between the life we would like as opposed to the life we feel we have been dealt.

Hopkinson builds her Toronto setting in a completely believable way. I could vividly imagine this once-prosperous city abandoned to gangsters and poverty. The people left behind are in desperate straits, alleviating their suffering with drug addiction and violence, but with pocket communities attempting to make a life worth the living. However true power is wielded by one man, ganglord Rudy, who maintains his grip through dark obeah magic. I loved that the magical scenes are every bit as believable as the dystopian city. I never felt myself thinking that something 'couldn't really happen' such is the intense atmosphere and authenticity of this novel. The magical horror aspects make Brown Girl In The Ring a perfect October read and I highly recommend it!