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Saga Boy
A Book Marks Best Reviewed Memoir of September 2021
An Essence Most Anticipated Book of Fall 2021
A Bustle Most Anticipated Book of September 2021
Growing up as a clever, willful boy in a tiny village in the tropical forests of Trinidad—raised by his indomitable grandmother, Miss Excelly, and her King James Bible—Antonio Michael Downing is steeped in the legacies of his scattered family, the vibrant culture of the island, and the weight of its colonial history. But following Miss Excelly’s death, everything changes. The eleven-year-old Downing seems to fall asleep in the jungle and to wake up in a blizzard: he is sent to live with his devoutly evangelical Aunt Joan in rural Canada, where they are the only Black family in a landscape starkly devoid of the warm lushness of his childhood.
Isolated and longing for home, Downing begins a decades-long journey to transform himself through music and performance. A reunion with his birth parents, whom he has known only through story, closes more doors than it opens. Instead, Downing seeks refuge in increasingly extravagant musical personalities: “Mic Dainjah,” a boisterous punk rapper; “Molasses,” a soul crooner; and, finally, an eccentric dystopian-era pop star clad in leather and gold, “John Orpheus.” In his mid-thirties, increasingly addicted to escapism, attention, and sex, Downing realizes he has become a “Saga Boy”—a Trinidadian playboy archetype—like his father and grandfather before him. When his choices land him in a jail cell, Downing must face who he has become.
Harnessing the lyricism of an evangelical childhood into a flourishing and unforgettable prose all its own, Saga Boy is a poignant journey of overcoming, belonging, and becoming one’s own self.
Keywords:
memoir, Trinidad, Canada, immigration, music, John Orpheus, Mic Dainjah, Molasses, King James Bible, Toronto, Wabigoon, performance
ISBN:
9781571311917 Publish Date:
09/14/2021
Pages:
344
Size:
9 × 6 × 1 in
Weight:
23 oz
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Praise and Prizes
“A young boy experiments with self-expression after a death in the family catapults him into isolation and instability.”
Essence, “Books We Can’t Wait to Curl Up With This Fall”
“This coming-of-age memoir follows Downing from his childhood with his grandmother and brother in Trinidad, to the boys’ eventual move to rural Ontario, to Downing’s invention of his rocker persona.”
Bustle, “Most Anticipated Books of September 2021”
“A rich memoir about how far some folks have to travel just to arrive where they began . . . Exalted and melodic . . . We see vast and granular marvels through the eyes of a child still capable of awe.”
Minneapolis Star Tribune
“Combining staccato prose and singsong storytelling . . . Downing’s heart-wrenching memoir chronicles his saga of trying on and casting off many masks, learning the dimensions of the face through which he sees the world and the world sees him.”
BookPage
“Compelling . . . Saga Boy is an eloquent memoir about Antonio Michael Downing’s experiences as an immigrant in a minority population; it centers his resilience.”
Foreword Reviews, starred review
“An engaging narrative about the search for home, belonging, and identity . . . Intriguing, passionate, and often moving.”
Kirkus Reviews
“Downing's lush language and sensory details make the fascinating events of this memoir pop. An authentic, entertaining, and timely account of a creative immigrant's experiences.”
Booklist
“Singularly dazzling, Saga Boy is a brilliant collage of the twenty-first century’s most incredible memoirs. Told with an unforgettable and innovative pace, this a book I will reread forever.”
Kiese Laymon
author of Heavy
"Saga Boy is an utterly riveting and powerful foray into tracing the lands and communities that make and mold us. A triumph!"
Aimee Nezhukumatathil
“A vibrant, evocative, and searing account of the lives of Black immigrants. Downing helps us understand the rage and resilience of Black boys—motherless, fatherless, itinerant—and the communities that intervene to raise them. The triumph of Saga Boy is the triumph of Blackness everywhere—the irrepressible instinct for survival in a world where Blacks are prey.”
Ian Williams
Prize–winning author of Reproduction
“An emotionally captivating, heartbreaking read on one man’s journey to understand who he is, where he comes from and where he belongs. From being the only Black family in Wabigoon to moving transformatively through the music scene in the city, Saga Boy makes us all question the strength of the ties that bind and where our future lies.”
Tanya Talaga
author of Seven Fallen Feathers and All Our Relations
“Downing transports readers to the steamy, scented jungle of Trinidad where he lived with his grandmother as a child. Miss Excelly stands with ramrod dignity, glories in the Lord’s love, and jumps off the page with her strength, her joy, and her suffering. As Faulkner created the powerful Dilsey in The Sound and the Fury, Downing has created Miss Excelly. A story of resilience and character, Saga Boy is bound to become a Canadian classic.”
Catherine Gildiner
author of Good Morning, Monster and Too Close to the Falls
In Saga Boy, Downing offers expertise and experience, intellect and intimacy; this is a book that names the griefs and violences of colonialism and insists on the tentacular ways they reach into all facets of being. It is also a book about kinship, pleasure, celebration, and love. Saga Boy is the story of a remarkable life, one both relatable and not, told with intricacy. It charts the ways space and time shape people into many, discernible persons within a lifetime. Truly unforgettable.”
Jenny Heijun Wills
author of Older Sister, Not Necessarily Related
“Downing seamlessly blends poetic images, music, and storytelling to create a poignant and stunningly honest memoir of a young man’s adamant determination to navigate his position and find himself despite the boundaries of colonialism, racism, and the endless sense of disbelonging.”
Lamees al Ethari
author of Waiting for the Rain: An Iraqi Memoir and From the Wounded Banks of the Tigris
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