How To Love a Jamaican

Some of the stories in this first collection from Iowa Writers' Workshop graduate Arthurs have been published in literary magazines, including "Bad Behavior," which won the Paris Review's Plimpton Award. But the majority are freshly minted, and they are all perpetually engaging. The protagonists are mainly Jamaican, of Jamaican descent, or African American, but the inclusion of white American, African, and Asian characters adds richness to stories as a conversation about race and gender. "Light-Skinned Girls and Kelly Rowlands," for example, shows the complicated friendship between two Jamaican students, one from the island and the other from California, who knows little about the home of her parents. While the stories have a rawness to them, exploring topics such as sexual orientation, parental relationships, self-discovery, and drug use, Arthurs also offers a sure feel of the mysticism of the Caribbean. Mermaids and water, particularly Mermaid River, are central to many of the pieces, as is the theme of death; "The Ghost of Jia Yi" shows how truly connected we are no matter where we are born.