Book Review: Broughtupsy by Christina Cooke

Let’s start off with the question you are all asking yourselves; what does ‘broughtupsy’ mean? I waited until I had finished reading Broughtupsy by Christina Cooke to look it up. According to Wikipedia, it originates from the Caribbean, and refers to having good manners. Google goes a bit further and says its a measure of how one fits into dominant society. Does this not sound like the perfect launch pad for a literary novel? This book is a coming-of-age work that examines one young woman’s particularly complicated life during a two week trip to Jamaica.

Plot Summary

It is 1996 and we first meet Akua at the hospital as she says goodbye to her younger brother Bryson who dies suddenly from a short illness. A twenty-year-old woman, she is already used to saying goodbye to those in her family, as her mother died when she was very young. Right after her death, their father moved their family to Texas, where Akua’s older sister Tamika decided to move back home to Jamaica and attend boarding school. From there, they moved to Vancouver, Canada, which is where Akua now calls home. Akua decides to take Bryson’s ashes and visit Tamika back in Jamaica, who she hasn’t seen in years. She’s angry Tamika didn’t make the journey north to say goodbye to Bryson, and she’s still upset that Tamika left their family so long ago, refusing to move away from Jamaica. Tamika is very different from Akua; as a deeply religious, conservative woman Tamika is appalled that Akua is openly gay back in Canada, and warns her against displaying any of that behaviour in Jamaica, where it is not acceptable to be queer. The majority of the book switches between Akua’s present day visit to Jamaica, and flashbacks to their childhood, each demonstrating a piece of the puzzle of Akua’s life, one which, (the reader will have to constantly remind themselves) is still only beginning.

My Thoughts

There’s no shortage of books that look at similar themes; immigration, race, sexuality, etc. but what made this book stand out for me was the wonderful way its setting permeated the narrative. Even though Akua is technically returning home, it has been so long since she was back in Jamaica that she’s acclimatized to being in Canada, so the sights, smells, and heat of the island hit her like a wall, and Cooke does a fantastic job of evoking all the senses to ensure the reader feels included. The nostalgia that one feels from revisiting elements of childhood is also a common touch point in this book; Akua bites into a soursop fruit for the first time in years, Tamika brings out VHS tapes of a show they used to watch together- each of these instances draw us closer to Akua, bringing her to life off the page. Everything about this book felt visceral, including the stifling disapproval of Tamika.

Another aspect of this book that many could relate to is its depiction of this particular kind of sisterhood:

“We are sisters, not friends. Our shared blood means there is nothing here to earn, to covet, to lose. We will remain sisters no matter what happens, no matter what we do or don’t say or how many years we’re apart. I want to scream in her face but instead I clamp my lips against my angry questions.”

p.39-40 of Broughtupsy by Christina Cooke, ARC edition

The physicality of the book continues into Akua’s relationships – she’s eventually hit, and hits back against Tamika. Violent instances like these (and the ending, which I won’t spoil here) seem to spring out of nowhere and I found them quite shocking, but equally shocking is the forceful way Akua is baptized, essentially against her will. These were stark reminders some lives are burdened with memories or actions that others are spared.

This is a serious book that flits between darkness and lightness, but what I appreciated most was its portrayal of the complicated feelings of returning ‘home’, which in Akua’s case, is a mix of positive and negative emotions. But be warned; readers must prepare themselves for the murky, and sometimes contradictory swirl of feelings found in this book.