“Kenya Curtis' coming-of-age story is fraught and touching and painful and very, very human. This paradox is the heartbeat of Asali Solomon's moving, tough-minded novel, which talks about all of it: family ties, highs and lows, pop culture, work, race, love, and all the other things that make up life.” ―Ahmir 'Questlove' Thompson What things? The things you learn in childhood. “What's childhood? It's when you don't know things. Get Down established Asali Solomon as one of the finest writers of her generation Disgruntled narrows it down to one of the finest writers alive.” ―Elizabeth McCracken, author of Thunderstruck & Other Stories “ Disgruntled is tender, hilarious, perfectly remembered and rendered, that rare book that is both wildly imaginative and thrillingly true to life. Solomon is a skillful guide who presents beauty and complex ideas in clear, accessible prose, with frequent punches of laugh-out-loud humor.” ―Steph Cha, Los Angeles Times

Solomon is a masterful writer, and Disgruntled is entertaining and thought-provoking in equal measure.

a smart, philosophical, coming-of-age tale featuring a vivid protagonist who battles 'the shame of being alive.'. One of The Denver Post's 'Best Fiction Books of 2015' 'synopsis' may belong to another edition of this title.

Maybe it's because she call her father -a housepainter-slash-philosopher - 'Baba' instead of 'Daddy,' or because her parents' friends gather to pour out libations 'from the Creator, for the martyrs' and discuss 'the community.'ĭisgruntled, effortlessly funny and achingly poignant, follows Kenya from West Philadelphia to the suburbs, from public school to private, and from childhood through adolescence, as she grows increasingly disgruntled by her inability to find any place or thing or person that feels like home.Ī coming-of-age tale, a portrait of Philadelphia in the late eighties and early nineties, and an examination of the impossible double-binds of race, Disgruntled by Asali Solomon is a novel about the desire to rise above the limitations of the narratives we're given and the painful struggle to craft fresh ones we can call our own. Maybe it's because she celebrates Kwanzaa, or because she's forbidden from reciting the Pledge of Allegiance. It's not because she's black - most of the other students in the fourth-grade class at her West Philadelphia elementary school are, too. Kenya Curtis is only eight years old, but she knows that she's different, even if she can't put her finger on how or why. A Denver Post Best Fiction Book of the YearĪn elegant, vibrant, startling coming-of-age novel for anyone who has ever felt the shame of being alive

Disgruntled by asali solomon