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    Disgruntled
    Disgruntled
    Disgruntled
    Audiobook9 hours

    Disgruntled

    Written by Asali Solomon

    Narrated by Bahni Turpin

    3.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    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. 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. Maybe it's because she calls her father-a housepainter-slash-philosopher-"Baba," or because her parents' friends gather to pour out libations "from the Creator, for the Martyrs" and discuss "the community."


    Kenya does know that it's connected to what her Baba calls "the shame of being alive"-a shame that only grows deeper and more complex. Disgruntled, effortlessly funny and achingly poignant, follows Kenya from West Philadelphia to the suburbs, from public school to private, from childhood through adolescence, as she grows increasingly disgruntled by her inability to find any place or thing or person that feels like home.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTantor Media, Inc
    Release dateApr 21, 2015
    ISBN9781494581763
    Disgruntled
    Author

    Asali Solomon

    Asali Solomon’s first novel, Disgruntled, was named a best book of the year by the San Francisco Chronicle and The Denver Post. Her debut story collection, Get Down, earned her a Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers’ Award and the National Book Foundation’s “5 Under 35” honor, and was a finalist for the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award. Her work has appeared in O, The Oprah Magazine, Vibe, Essence, The Paris Review Daily, McSweeney’s, and several anthologies, and on NPR. Solomon teaches fiction writing and literature of the African diaspora at Haverford College. She was born and raised in Philadelphia, where she lives with her husband and two sons.

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    Reviews for Disgruntled

    3.5/5

    35 ratings4 reviews

    What did you think?

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    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 2/5
      I enjoyed this book but felt a little adrift when it came to the story itself. I really liked how Solomon developed the characters and I was intrigued with the context, but I had a hard time following along with Kenya and her experiences. I would find myself really into a particular section of the book only to find that it was over and the story was moving on. I would have read a longer book if there was been more detail put in. Did I love this book? No. Would I read something else by Asali Solomon? Probably.
    • 3/5
      Here's the thing with this book: it lacks focus. It's an easy read and mildly enjoyable, the characters have potential. Parts of the story are certainly interesting and could stand on their own if given the time. But in this coming-of-age story, events are too quickly swept away and forgotten; a new direction is given and zoom, years pass by. The story lacks clear purpose, and though this may reflect the protagonist's issues with her own identity, it does not make for a good story.Certainly there is considerable talent shown in Disgruntled. The story is heartbreaking, riveting, and even funny at times. The characters could have brought things together if only I'd known their destination. I believe with a tighter story, Solomon could shine. She had me at moments, but in the end, I just felt lost.
    • 5/5
      This is a fine coming-of-age story, filled with humor and twists and great characters. Kenya is the only child of Johnbrown and Sheila, living in Philadelphia with her activist parents and with the students in her school thinking she's got a weird name and she celebrates Kwanzaa, so "Ooga Booga" becomes her nickname as Kenya has a hard time finding commonality with the other fourth graders. The family's social and political life centers around a bunch of comrades calling themselves "The Seven Days", and Kenya loves the weekly Saturday night meetings where strategies are discussed, music played, and ideas debated. The group disbands when Kenya's father and one of the Days become romantically involved and Kenya becomes a scholarship student at a ritzy girl's school. Johnbrown disappears from her life, living on the run doing political actions, and the next time Kenya sees him, he is in prison. Her mother Sheila remarries a jerk and Kenya decides to live with her father for the summer of her senior year in high school. She has high expectations for college, and also gains three new half siblings on the farm her father shares with his partners, the black woman from the Days and a white woman. It's The Summer That Changes Everything. The reader can only hope that author Solomon has a sequel in the works. Full of humor and pain, the story flows vividly and is over too fast.
    • 2/5
      Disgruntled by Asali Solomon. Disgruntled displeased and discontented; sulky; peevish. This book about a young black girl whose parents get divorced, goes to a private girls school,and ends up being put in jail after her drug dealing live in boy friend stashes marijuana in her room. The book left me disgruntled. In theory the reader is supposed to enjoy and gain insights from the journey and struggles the protagonist undergoes.The writer acts as a guide giving commentary by shaping what is presented reader. Asali Solomon does a marginal job at this task. As readers experience life from the perspective of the child, then the adolescent, and finally the young adult girl. What doesn’t happen is a connective narrative through the book. Events just happen without an overall context. Events happen and their significance is never explained or examined. The books ending is anti climatic and wholly dissatisfying.