SCARBOROUGH
By CATHERINE HERNANDEZ
Synopsis
Scarborough is a low-income, culturally diverse neighborhood east of Toronto, the fourth largest city in North America; like many inner city communities, it suffers under the weight of poverty, drugs, crime, and urban blight. Scarborough the novel employs a multitude of voices to tell the story of a tight-knit neighborhood under fire: among them, Victor, a black artist harassed by the police; Winsum, a West Indian restaurant owner struggling to keep it together; and Hina, a Muslim school worker who witnesses first-hand the impact of poverty on education.
And then there are the three kids who work to rise above a system that consistently fails them: Bing, a gay Filipino boy who lives under the shadow of his father’s mental illness; Sylvie, Bing’s best friend, a Native girl whose family struggles to find a permanent home to live in; and Laura, whose history of neglect by her mother is destined to repeat itself with her father.
Scarborough offers a raw yet empathetic glimpse into a troubled community that locates its dignity in unexpected places: a neighborhood that refuses to be undone.
Richard says
I could not get into this book at all. Twenty-siz pages into the book, and I still could not identify the author as white, black, indigenous and the point of her story. My patience ran out.
If this book made it to any Canadian best seller list, or received some kind of awards, then the these lists/awards should be taken with a grain of salt. A good book engages as well as entertains. Scarborough fails on both counts with me. Instead it has me bouncing around trying to figure out the point of the narrative and who she is.
I returned the borrowed book early.
