Cakewalk

I received a copy of this audiobook in exchange for my honest review.

As an incredibly quick summary, because depending on where you are reading this review, you may not be able to see what this story is about, I will give you a quick recap. This book follows Bryan, an African American who is divorced, has two children, VP of a large, multinational oil/gas company in Texas, and is also secretly dating a transgender woman. Bryan’s mother is very proud of her son and boasts about his accomplishments.

First of all, let me say, as a social worker in Texas, this book being offered to me was incredibly exciting. Just the content information alone had me saying yes please. This book contains many themes throughout it that is highly relevant across cultures and various experiences and having books like this out in the universe is incredibly important to those going through Bryan’s experiences.

This book carries many themes throughout it which people often face, sometimes with no real solution in it. I do want to point out a few things. I want to preface this by saying, I truly believe the interpretation of this story is going to be different for every reader. Bryan’s mother is incredibly homophobic. When you hear things growing up like “I don’t mind gay people as long as its not my children” (this is actually something I heard growing up), any kind of feelings that would be considered “gay” can make the person feel guilty and react more harshly to their actions/thoughts/feelings. All people go through phases where they are defining their sexual identity. Our experiences around sexual identity as children greatly impact our experiences and our reactions as adults. Bryan’s relationship with his son, and the double standards there, really show the perpetuation of generational traumas.

As I said, I had the narrated copy of this book. The narrator has a nice sound to him and he delivers well, however, I found I had to really really really focus on the book to get through it. I like when I can listen to a narrator and do other things and still be able to focus on what is being said. Alvarez’s narration style is very smooth, and he kind of faded into the background and I would find myself disassociating and focusing on the task I was doing. I like background noise like the television and music (especially lofi) when I am trying to focus on tasks, and his voice just did the same thing to me. Other people will like it, but for me and my ADHD, that really takes away the book experience overall and I may be missing some key things from the story because of it.

Overall, I did like the story and am happy I got the opportunity for this book. I may have to give the physical copy a read, maybe my thoughts would be different or my overall interpretation might be different. Who knows.

Also, for the record, I went about this with more of my social work brain and not a casual reader. So my review may be incredibly different than others, sorry 😦