Pride, by Ibi Zoboi

You saw that list of the books I've been reading. When I noticed Pride available as an e-book from my library, I downloaded it right away and opened it up, just to get a taste. Then I ignored everything else I was reading and devoured Pride from start to finish.

Folks, this book is fine.

What drew me in and kept me riveted was the writing. Zuri's voice is wonderful. She's a poet, and she loves her world, and her fierce love and pride in her family, her people, her place come through in every word. Bushwick is noisy and colourful and rough around the edges* and Zuri likes it like that. In her narration and in her poems she brings to life the people, the smells, the textures, the music—along with her worries, her dreams, her desire to make things better. When a rich black family moves in across the street with two good-looking sons, Zuri's sisters think their dreams are about to come true. Zuri is afraid they're going to ruin everything she loves about her home.

First question you might ask about this Pride and Prejudice retelling set in Brooklyn: if you've never read Pride and Prejudice, will you enjoy this book? Absolutely yes: in the same way that you can enjoy Clueless without having read Emma. Pride is its own story with vivid characters that pop off the page while playing out an ageless plot.

If you love Jane Austen and hold P&P close to your heart, will this adaptation will make you cringe? On the contrary: like Clueless, Pride reimagines the original in a way that's fun but also sends you back to Austen with new perspective. Social and economic divides are both easier and harder to breach today than in Austen's time; watching hypocrisy and willful ignorance get skewered and roasted is every bit as satisfying.

Pride is a quick, compressed adaptation rather than a slavish retelling, so nothing is forced. Zuri's relationship with Darius could have used more development, but in truth this story isn't so much about the romance as it is about Zuri's perspective broadening—and the reader gaining insight into her world and the forces that are changing it, for good or bad.

Just as Austen expressed her love for the intimate details of family and social life in her small corner of Regency England, so Zoboi makes us fall in love with one small neighbourhood in Brooklyn, threatened by poverty and gentrification, held together by love.

I wish I knew what Haitian and Dominican food tasted like, but I have had jerk chicken, which Zuri can probably get in Bushwick. So spicy it's painful, but layered with complex flavours, tender and juicy. We get it here with sweet potato fries or plantain chips. So good!

*I really wanted to give you some quotations instead of paraphrasing, but e-books are too hard to find things in! You'll just have to go find your own copy of the book to hear Zuri's voice.