"Carla had moved to look out the window, and hacking off such thoughts, Tuyen walked across the room to her. She watched the thin muscle of Carla's neck quiver like a tulip's stem, She wanted to caress it, she wanted to put her lips on it. The the mouth, turned down and sulking, she wanted to kiss it to the upturned suppleness she knew was there. Touching Carla's shoulder gently, as if afraid of breaking it with her desire, she said, "It'll be all right. Don't worry.""
-Dionne Brand
I may be cheating a bit in writing this review, as this is not a book that I'd normally pick for myself, but was in fact forced to read for a class. However, having to choose between reading the book or failing, I found myself not minding so much having that particular gun pointed at my head. Instead, I found myself becoming fully invested to the story and the lives of the characters the further I read on.
What We All Long For, follows the lives of four post undergrad students (give or take), their lives, the lives of their families and the complexities that they are all subjected to with moving to Canada/the City of Toronto. The readers are told of the lives that these families have left behind, their struggles with hybridity, post-memories, and trauma. It gives the readers who might not have otherwise had to think of it, the complications that come along with growing up in an immigrant household as an otherwise native to the new land.
Yet, there is a lot about the story that I did not agree with, though Dionne Brand herself is a black woman, the portrayal of black men, or youth, can have the tendency at points to seem slightly stereotypical. Then, there is the issue of Tuyen (the main character) and the portrayal of her Vietnamese background, as well as Brand's writing her as a predatory gay character who can't seem to take no for an answer.
In fact, a lot of the relationships in this book could be read as x-character not being able to take no for an answer, and so a lot of shit goes down because of that. This could of course simply be a commentary on human nature's overriding sense of entitlement, to which I invite you all to decide for yourselves. Pick up a copy, grab a blanket, & keep warm and read.
