One Year of Ugly by Carolyn Mackenzie

Welcome Back Booklovers,

So this time I'm back with a review of a book far from my usual read. I read very few books by white authors and I'm very weary about them writing non white characters. But I decided to give it a chance because some Caribbean bloggers did and had good things to say about it and the fact that the rights got picked up by Netflix intrigued me.  I received an arc from Simon and Schuster in exchange for an honest review. Less than 10% in I found myself going, "Wha de ass is dis?" multiple times. 

Now I thought this would be a proper tale about immigration that would break down some of the stereotypes that Trinidadians have about Venezuelan illegal immigrants in their country.  The story centers around Yola and the rest of the Palacio family who are still getting over their Aunt Celia's recent death when it's revealed she owed a lot of money to a criminal called Ugly who helped fix her children's paper's to get them into a good school and guarantee safe passage to Trinidad. 

Instead what I got was a story that seemed to have no rhyme or purpose and just doubled down on negative stereotypes. The writing style is very jarring and often lewd and I didn't quite understand the humor. While I don't live in Trinidad and Tobago I have family and family friends still living there and I've heard different sides to what people think about these people who have been fleeing there in droves in recent years. Some don't have a problem, some think all the women are whores, some think they only bring mafia violence, some say they're stealing all the good jobs ,etc. The opinions are usually strong and vary. I also know people who were at one point illegal immigrants in Trinidad and they were there working hard in horrible conditions doing jobs locals wouldn't want to do while sending money back home to support family members.

The author Carolyn Mackenzie plays into the stereotypes about the women being overly-sexualized and involved in illegal activity. This is done  not only through the lead Yola but also through pieces from her deceased Aunt Celia's memoir. 

What was her research process like? Is she friends with any Venezuelans? Does she interact with these people through her work? Most illegal immigrants do not flee to another country and land good jobs where they can live comfortably with little worry. 

I know the author herself works as a translator like Yola and the family seems very much based on her and her family. There were so many times I felt like I was reading about the white Trini experience and the author's thoughts of being a minority in a country where Black and Indian people are the majority.  Yola has a cushy work from home job. Her sister has a great job to that has her in circles partying with rich white Trinis. There's lots of commentary about skintone and the rainbow of races in Trinidad but their skintone wouldn't be uncommon. There was even a point where Yola wondered if she was racist because she thought three dark skinned guests staying at their houses looked alike. She later comments that in fact she's not racist because they're actually triplets.  Despite her illegal status and having come to Trinidad the same way as others she refers to the others as illegals and seems to hold herself to a higher status. 

As far as the situation with Ugly most of it consists of them housing other illegal Venezuelans as a safe house for awhile and it's reads like the story of a wacky bed and breakfast full of ungrateful guests. 

The romance might've worked if it was slower and with depth but instead Yola finds herself lusting after Ugly's bodyguard Roman literally right after witnessing him choking her father. There was no real investment in the relationship to make it root worthy. His shared love of literature is supposed to make the relationship more solid. 

And this right here is why I don't trust white authors to write non white voices. What could've been an impactful story is a forgettable story full of sex, drugs, booze, and crude humor that downplays violence. It feels like a cheesy telenovela. I'll be looking forward to a more realistic story written by an actual Venezuelan migrant instead.