A tour de force . . . An extraordinary gathering of stories that confirms Brinkley’s place among the most moving, compelling and virtuosic practitioners of the short form.”
—Joe Moshenska, The Guardian
“Superb . . . A must-read.”
—Bethanne Patrick, Los Angeles Times
“One of the finest young writers working today . . . Brinkley is a skilled, patient prose stylist and deft writer of character who isn’t afraid to engage with the difficult moral complexity of contemporary life. Reading Witness will make you consider your place in the world as both a bystander and a participant.”
—Isle McElroy, New York
“Packed with incident, insight and emotion . . . Supremely accomplished . . . [with] verve, poise and moments of unexpected beauty . . . Brinkley is shaping up to be one of the most impressive contemporary practitioners of short stories.”
—Malcolm Forbes, Star Tribune (Minneapolis)
“Unassuming, funny, warm and generous with a sharp undertow of spiky intelligence . . . [Brinkley] constructs the cityscapes of his stories with such deliberate, exacting love and care.”
—Lynn Steger Strong, Los Angeles Times
“Brinkley tackles several themes in the book, including community, responsibility and grief, and he does so beautifully, with assured prose and artful dialogue that rings true, sometimes painfully so. This is a brilliant collection that offers hope, but not at the expense of realism.”
—Michael Schaub, NPR
“An instantly classic portrait of contemporary New York City, beamed through the lens of our modern, fractured existence.”
—Lauren Puckett-Pope, Elle
“These brilliant and heart-wrenching stories, bound by the act of bearing witness, capture moments of loss and grief.”
—Lauren LeBlanc, The Boston Globe
“Burst[ing] with life . . . Thought-provoking, entertaining, explosive. Brinkley is an incredible talent.”
—Harlan Coben, Today Show
“[A] powerful collection.”
—The New Yorker
“Racism, police brutality, failing social support systems, violence in social media, economic hardship—Brinkley bears witness to these topics . . . with searing beauty and grace.”
—Monika Dziamka, Chicago Review of Books
“Short stories that in their depth of feeling, perception, and sense of place affirm their author’s bright promise . . . [They] carry a rich veneer worthy of such exemplars of the form as Chekhov, Eudora Welty, Alice Munro, and James Alan McPherson . . . After just two collections, Brinkley may already be a grand master of the short story.”
—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“In his dazzling sophomore collection, Brinkley digs into the promises and dangers of intimacy and the costs of speaking up or staying silent . . . Throughout, Brinkley crafts unforgettable portraits, humming with barely restrained tension, of Black men and women exploring what it means to be part of families and communities that are awash in hope and disappointment alike. These intimate vignettes have the power to move readers.”
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“Exceptional . . . [Witness journeys] deep into the human heart with precise language and a generous spirit.”
—Bookpage (starred review)
“Remarkable . . . Offer[s] compelling explorations of life’s borderlands and the quietly stunning revelations that can be found there.”
—Booklist
“Brinkley keenly explores [his characters’] predicaments with grace and wit.”
—Mark Athitakis, Los Angeles Times
“This tender short story collection digs into the line between witnessing and acting, with a set of characters ranging from children to grandparents. Brinkley leads readers through the subtle and dramatic moments of life, grappling with the question of what this life means.”
—Shelbi Polk, Shondaland
“Portraits of intimacy and friendship, grief and mourning . . . Expect this to be one of the standout collections of the year.”
—Dan Sheehan, Literary Hub
“Jamel Brinkley is one of the best story writers we have. Witness is a book of psychological acuity, of graceful sentences, of devastation and heart. Read everything this man writes—and know the world anew.”
—Justin Torres, author of Blackouts
“Jamel Brinkley reminds one of the iconic short-story writers Edward P. Jones and Mavis Gallant. This is a dazzling collection by a masterful storyteller.”
—Yiyun Li, author of The Book of Goose
“In Witness, Jamel Brinkley explores the longings and fears of his characters with a tenderness and a generosity of spirit that make the reader hurt when they hurt, and rejoice in life’s surprising moments of joy alongside them.”
—Angela Flournoy, author of The Turner House
“Jamel Brinkley’s sentences are daggers. He writes about the shifting intimacies of community and love with wit and warmth.”
—Raven Leilani, author of Luster
“We call up the names of short story greats to describe Jamel Brinkley’s writing, but his stories are lucidly and assuredly his own. His seemingly effortless style is recognizable within a paragraph. His evocation of character and place is second-to-none. There is all the involvedness and complexity of a novel in each story, which makes this collection so abundant and wise. A brilliant writer.”
—Caoilinn Hughes, author of The Wild Laughter
“These are stories of rare beauty and insight, that glitter with humor and hurt, written with lambent clarity and tenderness about family and marriage, love and brokenness. Brinkley has the same sure and affecting understanding of purpose and loss, of human temporality—our meanings in and out of time—that Edward P. Jones does, the close, compelling texture and wisdom of Mavis Gallant, and an honoring of and commitment to mystery that is his own.”
—David Hayden, author of Darker With the Lights On
★ 2023-05-24
Short stories that in their depth of feeling, perception, and sense of place affirm their author’s bright promise.
As in his debut collection, A Lucky Man (2018), Brinkley sets these stories in New York City ethnic neighborhoods on the edge of transformation, vividly and, at times, hauntingly showing how the people in those enclaves struggle to withstand, even transcend the changes around them. “The Happiest House on Union Street,” for instance, focuses on a young girl named Beverly, old enough to be “past the phase of making words up,” who spends the days and nights leading up to Halloween trying to mediate tensions between her father and her uncle (both named Ray) as a developer is showing interest in the Brooklyn home that’s been in their family for generations. Then there’s “Bartow Station,” in which a delivery-truck driver’s encounter with an abandoned subway tunnel triggers unwanted memories of a personal tragedy. In this story, as in others, characters’ presumptions are upended, secrets revealed, and wounds, both physical and psychological, are exposed. These factors come together most strikingly in the title story, in which a young woman named Bernice embarks on a romance with a club DJ to the consternation of her truculent, disapproving brother, and the petty disputes among the three of them obscure the fact that something is terribly wrong with Bernice’s health. In some ways, the plots of these stories, however engrossing, are less significant than their vivid physical details, graceful language, and acute observation of even the most bewildering of human behavior. Brinkley’s stories carry a rich veneer worthy of such exemplars of the form as Chekhov, Eudora Welty, Alice Munro, and James Alan McPherson. At their best, these stories provide inspiration to all of us, no matter who we are or where we live, on how best to deal with those moments in life when, as one of Brinkley’s characters puts it, “all we can manage…is halting small talk, and the awkwardness of it resounds in our ears.”
After just two collections, Brinkley may already be a grand master of the short story.
