How to Love a Jamaican

Arthurs’s enticing debut collection examines the lives of Jamaicans both in their homeland and abroad in America. “Light-Skinned Girls and Kelly Rowlands” is a sharp study of two college friends in New York. Both are Jamaican, yet one’s Northern California upbringing causes the other to question her racial identity. The devastating “Slack” begins with two young girls drowning in a water tank, and then rewinds the narrative to fill in the events that led to the tragedy. Other standouts include “We Eat Our Daughters,” comprised of short vignettes of Jamaican women discussing their relationships with their mothers; “Island,” concerning a recently uncloseted woman returning to Jamaica to attend a friend’s wedding; and “The Ghost of Jia Yi,” in which a Jamaican woman studying in Iowa struggles with the murder of a fellow international student. Between these successes, however, are narratives employing similar, yet drab, scenarios. “Mash Up Love,” about a man who spends his day reminiscing about his twin brother, rambles, while “Mermaid River” employs a predictable frame to recall one character’s upbringing on the island. Arthurs shoehorns in reoccurring faces sporadically to create a shared universe, yet only some of it sparks with life. Nonetheless, there are enough hits to make up for the misses. (July)