Alright, so Dark Blue Suit.

The layout of this novel definitely resonated with me : arranging it as a collection of short stories made it easy to stop and pick up later without feeling like your train of thought was disrupted. I’ve always been a fan of short stories, as I feel that they hold a lot of narrative potential. Despite that, I had a hard time getting through this novel simply on the basis that I wasn’t sure what it was trying to say, and what it DID say sometimes rubbed me the wrong way.

What I appreciated about this novel was it’s frankness. At no point does it feel the need to censor itself or try to sugarcoat anything about the rather heartrending stories contained within. All the narratives revolve around the character “Buddy” – who I can only assume is a stand in for the author, and most of them involved themes of loss and individuality. Unfortunately, at no point does the story give any sort of positive attention to female characters, and at the worst, pretty offensive. In particular, the fact that Stephi’s mother was referred to as a ‘puta’ early on in the first story, and how the only significant female character, Stephi, was featured very late in the book and had little to contribute outside pablum drama. There was a little attention paid to her privilege as a mixed-race person, but I feel that so much more could have been done to make us understand and empathize with her.

Rico was by far my favorite character in the story, despite the fact his tale is one of tragedy. His character was probably even more fleshed out than the main characters by the story’s end, having lost himself after serving in the Vietnam War and his subsequent PTSD. It makes me consider; what exactly has changed. We still let kids like Rico slip through the cracks of our public school systems despite having made so much alleged ‘progress’ since the 1980s. The novel even details how Rico was hardly a talentless individual – he simply wasn’t encouraged to explore those talents or given the space to embrace and develop them. His identity as a racial minority made success in life impossible for him. It’s almost too much to take.

Overall I was less impressed with this novel then previous ones, but still thankful to see a set of stories that took place in a local that was very familiar to me (in this case Seattle).