Alecia McKenzie

NYC artist, Chris, Jamaican on mother's side travels there after brutal, senseless murder of his wife. Stays at home of "Auntie" of his friend/agent Stephen. Becomes engaged in their lives. Chapters highlight people in his life whose stories are also told (those in NYC and Jamaica) and pens a story of friendship, family and community that ends with many of them traveling to France together, a journey that is also internal. The last chapter, appropriately, is that of Auntie Della. It is lovely and engaging.… (more)

So Chris start telling him bout all the museum-dem, while I listening with one ear. I glad to see Chris looking more relax. I worry about him the same way I feel for Stephen. Like we is family. And I thinking: Look at me who never have nobody. And yet all of us here like we on some big family reunion trip. (p.179)

This 'family' is in Paris, exploring the treasures of its art collections. There are nine in the group, connected by love and affection rather than biology, and each of them in one way or another is transcending some personal pain.

The catalyst for the trip is Chris's casual remark at a dinner in New York. The blockbuster Monet exhibition had just opened at MOMA, when he said 'I might stop over in France and visit the Monet museums before I go to Italy.' The trip to Italy is to see Lidia's parents—Chris hasn't seen them since Lidia, his wife, was blown up in a terrorist attack.

His good friend and agent and fix-it man Stephen has been the catalyst for Chris's journey to healing. He organises for Chris to go home to Jamaica, where he stays with Miss Della. She could use a little extra money to repair her house which, like all the others in the street, has been damaged by the landslide. Nurtured by comfort food and a light-filled room in which to paint, Chris finds Miss Della's love of plants infectious and although he has never been any good at painting flowers, he begins to do so, in homage to Lidia who was a landscape gardener of public spaces in New York.

Successive chapters are narrated by different characters, each of whom has a story to tell. A story of damage and endurance, and a journey towards acceptance and healing. Reading this just after Noreena Hertz's The Lonely Century is like balm to the soul. There's not a whiff of Pollyanna in A Million Aunties but the novel asserts that all kinds of grief can be assuaged by the love and affection of others. And that families don't need to be connected biologically: it's the love and affection that counts.

There's no pretence that forgiveness is easy.

To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2021/04/08/a-million-aunties-by-alecia-mckenzie/… (more)