Caleb Azumah Nelson’s Open Water is a masterful experience of the English language, and a vivid journey into the black British experience in Britain, particularly London. He is able to paint the most expansive pictures without wasting a word… His poetic use of language blurs the line between poetry and prose, it carries a weight that’s perfectly balanced.
Capturing the black experience is no easy feat, but he is able to give voice to feelings and experiences for long undescribed and unspoken. He makes intelligible the traumatic experience of being stopped by the police, feeling like every walk from and to home could be your last, the spiritual barbershop community. He goes on to describe and decipher all that goes unsaid in relationships, the weight of absences, grief, through the lens of mental health.
Overall this is a read I could not put down; it was far too immersive to pull away from, in its 145 pages it accomplishes much to bring you into another world.
