Surprising experience reading this. I could almost chart my reaction(s) story by story, like a trend line. The first one seemed intended to hit one in the gut - through language and party-wildness. I'm certainly no stranger to any of that but the bit at the end where the girls assault the rabid dog had me ready to chuck the book in the corner. That scene, that device, just felt entirely gratuitous and really, pointless. What did its inclusion accomplish? I can't see a viable answer. I stuck with it though and it did come back around in few of the stories but at the end of the read, two words hung for me: "inconclusive" and "manipulative." I understand that short stories, by nature, can be incomplete or perhaps, abrupt but at the end of at least 1/3 of these stories I found myself saying, "yeah? so?" And, the repetitive descriptions of women's bodies just felt, well, manipulative - at least, in the way it was done and repeated from one story to another. ( )

This collection of nine short stories is set in Brooklyn and the South Bronx, where the author grew up, and each is centered around two African American men, who are family members or friends whose relationships are strained and occasionally at the breaking point, which affects themselves and those around them. My favorite stories were "J'ouvert, 1996", in which a troubled teenage boy struggles to accept his mother's new boyfriend while having to look after his younger brother as he seeks independence and his own identity; 'Everything the Mouth Eats", a story about two estranged brothers who decide to travel togther to attend a capoeira, an Afro-Brazilian martial arts conference, in an attempt to restore their formerly close relationship; "A Family", in which a man recently released from prison attempts reconciliation with the wife of his deceased best friend and his teenage son; and "A Lucky Man", which is centered on a school employee whose alluring wife has recently left him alone and adrift, as a younger man teases and torments him over his loss. I liked the other stories but wasn't as enamored by them, but this is a very promising debut collection and I look forward to reading Jamel Brinkley's future works. ( )

I rarely read short story anthologies. A Lucky Man is a series of stories about fathers and sons. The stories felt very contemporary and complex. Although I found some of the subject matter hard to read due to the characters situations, the author's approach was very unique and kept me turning the page. ( )

DNF at 25% (after two stories).

It's not the book, it's me. The stories were very accomplished but I find myself almost completely unable to read books rooted in the male gaze, where women characters are present primarily to provide motivation for the male characters. Also, animal abuse that presumably was meant to tell me something about the characters, but I think I had figured them out at that point and didn't need the cruelty to drive the point home. ( )

This is a noteworthy collection; not only are short stories a hard sell for established authors, but for a new author like Brinkley, published by a smaller publisher outside of the Big Five to get any attention at all is unusual. Yet this book shows up on prize lists as diverse as the National Book Award and The Tournament of Books. The attention the is book is getting is well-deserved, the stories collected here are varied, but all speak to the experience of growing up as a person of color in New York. Like most collections, there were a few weaker offerings sandwiched between the strongest stories at the front and back of the book, but all were worth reading. Brinkley's skill is to bring the inner life of a child to life and to make the reader feel every uncertainty. This is a collection that brings to life the people living in the ungentrified areas of New York's boroughs. It's a good collection and I'll be sure to read whatever Brinkley writes next. ( )