"A Lucky Man" Jamel Brinkley''s Nat'l Book Award Winning Short Story Collection

Jamel Brinkley makes an impressive debut with his short story collection "A Lucky Man" earning the Nat'l Bk Award '18.  These 9 stories set in and around Brooklyn provide a voyeuristic view into the lives of its characters.  Permission is given from father to son or big brother to younger brother to view may offers an inkling of taboo regarding sex, nudity or of appreciating the female form.  Of the 9 varied and nuanced stories expose the rights of passage into manhood.  "The man he was about to become was beginning to erupt out of him like a flourish of horns."  Males are allotted the unabashed admiration of the female form except for the books' title story "A Lucky Man."  Lincoln Murray is a married man with a daughter.  He works at an elite private school on the upper west side.  Now in his mid-50s he finds himself estranged from his wife after she discovered numerous photos of women on his phone.  He's also in a vicarious situation with his security guard job at the school.  He's been called out by as a pervert by a parent for taking photos of the young girls.  Somehow, Lincoln's compulsion to take clandestine photos fails to register as inappropriate.  In Brinkley's other stories, male bonding is strengthed by engaging in the blatant ogling of women.  Brinkley stories convey universal themes of failed expectations, dysfunctional families, aging and racial disparities.  Brinkley's characters shed light from the perspectives of men of color from a broad range of ages.  Freddy, a young boy being taken on a field trip to the suburbs is let down by his high expectations of a fun day swimming in a large pool & great food hosted by a white family only to be disappointed by the murky pool & lousy meal served by their black hostess in a modest home. Freddy can't contain himself from wandering through the home on his own and into the master bedroom of the hostess.  Most of the women are presented as fierce, regal and commanding.  The stories contain mixed families raised by single mothers without father figures.  Boundaries are blurred and loyalties questioned.  Role models for masculinity are looked up to or disregarded.  Brinkley's clear voice is ferocious, tender and heartbreaking.  A recurring theme that speaks with poignancy is the human desire to be someone your child will look up to.  "I keep imagining what it would be like to be a father to a boy who loves and believes in me and despite all our differences wants nothing more than to be a man in my image."  Brinkley is a brilliant writer, with great insights and affecting observations.  "A Lucky Man" winning the Nat'l Book Award was no fluke.  It's an elegant and eye-opening collection that glows with energy.