“In the tradition of Ta-Nehisi Coates’s Between the World and Me and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Dear Ijeawele, or a Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions, acclaimed novelist David Chariandy’s latest is an intimate and profoundly beautiful meditation on the politics of race today.“
About The Book 📚
Title: I’ve Been Meaning To Tell You
Author: David Chariandy
Publication Date: 2018
Publisher: McClelland & Stewart
Suggested Reader Age: Adult
Genre: Nonfiction, Autobiography, Memoir, Canadian, Race, Parenting, Social Justice
Synopsis
“When a moment of quietly ignored bigotry prompted his three-year-old daughter to ask “what happened?” David Chariandy began wondering how to discuss with his children the politics of race. A decade later, in a newly heated era of both struggle and divisions, he writes a letter to his now thirteen-year-old daughter. David is the son of Black and South Asian migrants from Trinidad, and he draws upon his personal and ancestral past, including the legacies of slavery, indenture, and immigration, as well as the experiences of growing up a visible minority within the land of one’s birth. In sharing with his daughter his own story, he hopes to help cultivate within her a sense of identity and responsibility that balances the painful truths of the past and present with hopeful possibilities for the future.”
About The Author
“David Chariandy is a Canadian writer and one of the co-founders of Commodore Books.
His debut novel Soucouyant was nominated for ten literary prizes and awards, including the 2009 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award (longlisted), the 2007 Scotiabank Giller Prize (longlisted), the 2007 Governor General’s Award for Fiction (finalist), the 2007 ForeWord Book of the Year Award for literary fiction from an independent press (“gold” winner), the 2008 Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Best First Book of Canada and the Caribbean (shortlisted), the 2008 Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize of the British Columbia Book Prizes (shortlisted), the 2008 City of Toronto Book Award (shortlisted), the 2008 “One Book, One Vancouver” of the Vancouver Public Library (shortlisted), the 2008 Relit Award for best novel from a Canadian independent press (shortlisted), and the 2007 Amazon.ca/Books in Canada First Novel Award (shortlisted).
Chariandy has a MA from Carleton and a PhD from York University. He lives in Vancouver and teaches in the department of English at Simon Fraser University.”
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/865900.David_Chariandy
My Review
“Never let anyone tell you that as a girl, you shouldn’t express how angry you are.”
› Significant and moving, I’ve Been Meaning To Tell You is a small book that packs a poignant punch. Because it’s only 128 pages I’m not going to say much…just that this is a must-read. A profound piece of writing that will stay with you. As a white woman, I’m so very grateful to get a glimpse into what it’s like to live life as a Black person. I will do my best to know my privilege, be an ally, and always speak up against racism.
My Rating ★★★★★
Smitten For Fiction 