A review by annreadsabook
Patsy by Nicole Dennis-Benn

challenging emotional reflective sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

What would you lose to pursue love? To pursue being the truest version of yourself? And what is the “truest version” of yourself, anyway?

These are some of the central questions in Patsy, Nicole Dennis-Benn’s powerfully-written novel that takes place both in rural Jamaica and New York City. When Patsy, the titular character, decides to leave her young daughter Tru in Jamaica to pursue her childhood friend and love Cicely, both Patsy and Tru are left to contend with what it means to be loved and to make space for oneself in the world. Further complicating things, when Patsy arrives to New York, is Cicely’s newfound sense of place in the world—one that might not have space for Patsy.

There is so much to love about this book. Dennis-Benn has some really fascinating commentary in here about womanhood, race, and identity—as a poor, queer Black immigrant in New York City, Patsy comes to understand the ways in which Blackness is coded and understood in different ways. We see her deal with difficulty being taken seriously due to her race and skin tone, but on occasion, non-Black people open up to Patsy more readily because she is quickly understood to be an immigrant (e.g., not one of those “lazy Black people who ask for too much”). And through it all we see Patsy yearning for just a bit of care and love in a world that is meant to wear Black women down.

One of the aspects of this book that intrigued me most was this obsession with whiteness and aspirational whiteness. At almost every turn we’re met with Black folk who glorify green or blue eyes; Black folk who take up residence in glitzy mansions and put down other Black folk in the name of “progress.” Aspirational whiteness is a plague around the world—Patsy can’t escape it even by crossing the sea.

And there’s the question of what we owe ourselves vs. our children. While I was frustrated and torn up by Patsy’s decision to leave Tru in Jamaica, I loved that Dennis-Benn uses Patsy to explore ideas of selfhood and motherhood.
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