If I Survive You has been described as a collection of short stories with an interconnected narrative, and as a novel-in-stories. How would you describe it, and why did you choose to write the book in this manner, rather than as a more traditional novel? Was it a conscious plan at the outset?
I knew from the outset that I wanted to structure it in such a way that the chapters worked as standalone stories, and the stories worked as chapters that built toward a larger narrative arc and toward a climax. I wanted to challenge myself, and thought this would be formally interesting, if not innovative, but I also suspect it closely resembles the episodic nature of human experience. It was when I stopped worrying about whether to label it as stories or as a novel that it finally came together.
As the title suggests, the book is ultimately a survival story. Trelawny and family are faced with constant obstacles – racism, Hurricane Andrew, the 2008 recession. As someone who, like the family in the book, also grew up in 1980/90s Miami, how much of the book is based on either personal experience or real people you’ve encountered?
I used some personal experiences and what I observed in the environment I grew up in as the backdrop and cultural context for the book, but I imagined my way into scenarios that dramatise issues my community deals with, while working to engage readers with every tool I had in my toolbox. I wanted the book to express emotional truths without limiting it to what literally happened, and much of the enjoyment of writing the book was in figuring out how to get my characters out of the trouble I created for them. Of course, in some cases, they don’t get out of it.
Much of the book is concerned with the question of identity. Trelawny, your focal character, is too white when in Jamaica, and too Black when in Miami. He longs for community among other Black people but never quite finds it. What made you want to explore the idea of belonging?
I’d say he’s considered too American in Jamaica, not culturally or phenotypically Black (American) enough in Miami, and too Black in the American Midwest. This answer is necessarily an oversimplification, which, in part, is why I felt the need to write an entire book about the nuances of identity and belonging. In part, this book was the result of my grappling with the question of who my protagonist is, or could be, recognising that there is a gap between the complex ways people discuss identity, especially where I am from (Miami), and many of the characters I had read about growing up.