BookBrowse Reviews The Rest of You by Maame Blue

BookBrowse:

An artful and emotive story spanning three decades, centering Ghanaian women and showcasing how secrets, trauma, and grief affect our sense of self, family, and friendships.

At the start of Maame Blue's The Rest of You, Whitney Appiah, a Ghanaian Londoner, is ringing in her thirtieth birthday at a bar with her best friend and roommate, Chantelle. However, she is also reeling from a recent surprise phone call from a man she was dating, which has triggered memories of a traumatic night with him that she has been trying to suppress. As a masseuse, she knows all the ways the body communicates and holds onto feelings. She knows how to heal others, but she is struggling to heal herself. With recurring childhood nightmares now returned and affecting her deeply, the weight of painful recollections and unanswered questions about her family history leads her to finally confront her Aunt Gloria, who has been keeping crucial parts of her past a secret.

The Rest of You spans three decades. We follow Whitney in present-day London, and her aunts Gloria and Aretha along with their house help, Maame Serwaa, in 1995 Kumasi, Ghana, learning about the family's history of tragedy and grief. Aunt Gloria has filled the role of Whitney's sole guardian since both her parents died. Gloria's youngest sister Tina died giving birth to Whitney, and Gloria has told Whitney that her father died from an unknown illness. But we learn through the POVs of Gloria, Aretha, and Maame Serwaa that Bobby, Whitney's father, was killed by a friend of his, and despite her lack of recollection, Whitney, as a toddler, witnessed his death.

Blue has crafted an artful story through which to explore the themes of grief, generational trauma, male violence (toward other men and women), friendships, and family. She examines the ways Whitney's aunt, trying to protect her from pain, has inflicted more harm by limiting the knowledge she has of her parents and where she comes from. This has shaped her identity, how she makes sense of herself, and how she handles her relationships with others:

"Naturally, you had become a quietly curious person because of it, always hovering in between the gaps of things you didn't know about yourself. You rarely asked questions out loud anymore, even when questions constantly ran through your mind, even when you wondered why people did the things they did, why they hurt each other — or you."

The third-person voice is used for all the characters except Whitney, whose perspective is related in the second person. This is a unique and intelligent way to place you in her point of view that I felt was effective in creating empathy for her character.

One of the greatest benefits of multiple perspectives in a story is understanding different people's decisions. Seeing the juxtaposition of how the characters perceive each other's actions is poignant. Chapters alternate between Whitney, her aunts, and Maame Serwaa, making evident how they view each other's mindsets and how they have navigated the loss of loved ones. This structure showcases how, with family, there are often misunderstandings, and there are differences between the narratives we believe to be true about our choices and how others see them. Aretha felt Gloria was being irrational in moving away from the family to London with Whitney, and Gloria felt Aretha was being selfish in not following. While Whitney feels Gloria has been wrong in withholding information about her parents and their home in Ghana, Gloria has felt that it is the only way to move forward because of grief and the fear of a family curse. Whether or not you agree with Gloria's decision, it is humanizing to see how pain and trauma have shaped it.

Whitney's relationship with her two best friends, Chantelle and Jak, further illuminates Blue's theme of male violence and how it affects identity and womanhood. (Anyone with sensitivity toward sexual assault should be cognizant of its presence in this storyline, which I felt Blue handled with authenticity and care.) It also shows how friendships can be as important to us as family. Whitney has no siblings, so outside of her Aunt Gloria, Chantelle and Jak have been her support system. All of them deal with trauma from relationships with men involving sexual violence, on top of various growing pains that seep into how available and present they can be for each other, and it is moving to see how Blue navigates conflict between the three and portrays the moments they support and show each other grace and empathy.

While Blue successfully explores the story's themes, some readers may feel the suspense around the plot point of Whitney's father's death, which comes with ambiguity and a lack of closure, leaves something to be desired. However, I believe the intentional choice to withhold answers reinforces a lesson the characters learn: Nothing will fill the gap of the death of someone you love.

Blue's choice to begin the story with Whitney's thirtieth birthday and end it on her thirty-first is a crafty move that compels readers to reflect on the character's development. There is a recurring push and pull between the desire to look forward and the desire to look back on life. Still, the repeated mention of a Sankofa proverb, "We need to know our past in order to look to the future," emphasizes the idea I believe Blue wants readers to take away.

The Rest of You is an engaging, emotional journey that tackles heavy themes while remaining hopeful. Readers who enjoy literary fiction involving family, friendship, trauma, and grief will find this a satisfying and memorable read.

This review first ran in the November 6, 2024 issue of BookBrowse Recommends.