This week, I have read The Black Flamingo, by Dean Atta, from the YA Book Prize Shortlist 2020. I was so excited to read this novel of verse, and I was not disappointed. A highly relatable and moving coming of age story about Michael, as he explores his identity as a half Jamaican and half Greek-Cypriot gay teen and ultimately, his drag debut.
Written in the first person, the pages are filled with verse and illustrations (by Anshika Khullar) that propels the reader through Michael’s life in London from six years old to university. Interspersed, Atta includes text messages and notes, all presented with an economy of words that juxtaposes the deeper introspection providing an intimidate glimpse into Michael’s heart, mind and soul.
The novel opens with a Prologue, and as expected, it reveals the narrative journey: ‘The black flamingo is me trying to find myself’ to ultimately ‘I am the fairy finding my own magic’. These short phrases sum up the introspective nature of the verse that culminates with Michael’s revelation at a drag artist, ‘I stand triumphant in a leotard and heels, a full face of make-up and a beard’ which is both exhilarating and hopeful.
However, within the first few pages, Michael reflects that ‘I often feel like a bad egg that was not meant to be’. This is a dark and despairing phrase; you have to hope that ‘the magic’ referred to in the Prologue provides Michael with enough agency not only to overcome this negativity and embrace all of himself. This darkness is represented in the episode where his father shouted at his mother, ‘You’re useless!’ while ‘throwing his plate down, turkey stuck to the kitchen floor’. The verbal abuse combined with the violent action is just one example of Michael’s hurdles.
The narrative fast forwards to Michael’s ‘sixth birthday’ where all he wanted was a ‘Barbie’ but instead was given ‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’. However, later that year, his Mother gave him a Barbie described as: ‘No wrapping paper, just / a pink bow on the box. / Mummy has bought me / a Barbie! / But she got it wrong. / It’s not the Goddess / but I hug her anyway.’ Atta highlights ‘a Barbie!’, the short phrase separated by line breaks signifying the importance of the gift as well as the developing relationship between Michael and his mother.
In Michael’s continued search for identity, on his seventh birthday, he no longer wants a Barbie, but rather he describes: ‘I tell Mummy I want to change my last name. I tell her I want to match her. I want to change my surname from his Brown to her Angeli.’ The repetition of ‘I tell’ demonstrates the forcefulness of his desire to not to have ‘his name /dragging behind me like a dead dog on a lead’. The repetition is furthered by the simile as well as the alliteration of the words ‘dragging’, ‘dead’ and ‘dog’. Atta emphatically concludes his relationship with his father by relinquishing his association with his name with further similes: ‘like a toilet roll on the sole of my new Kickers boots, / like a shedded snakeskin / like a second shadow’. These comparisons are economically phrased hard hitting as Michael soars with his new name ‘Michael Angeli’ where he ‘can really fly’.
There are many evocative, sad and joyous examples of narrative verse throughout The Black Flamingo. One that particularly hit home was ‘Don’t let anyone tell you / that you are half anything’ and ‘you are a full human / being.’ Exploring, as many of us do, our composite identities, and for Michael what it means ‘to be British, Cypriot and Jamaican’ is highly relatable and affirms that there are many parts that can make up the whole.
The narrative verse takes us through Michael’s teenage years, two schools and his relationships his friends: Emily, Callum, Daisy, Rowan, Grace, Destiny and Faith as well as his Uncle B and sister Anna. It is Michael’s ‘coming out’ letter to Rowan that is so moving and exposes his vulnerableness when he writes ‘I’ve liked you for so long / I like your ginger hair, your freckles / will you go out with me?’ and the heartbreak we feel with him when Rowan responds: ‘Oh, right,’ he says. ‘This is awkward.’
While Michael navigates secondary school, it is in university where he seeks to solidify his identity ultimately trying out the Drag Society where his journey ends and begins simultaneously with his first performance as Black Flamingo ‘I call myself black. / I call myself queer. / I call myself beautiful. / I call myself eternal. / I call myself iconic. / I call myself futuristic.’ The simple sentences, making use of anaphora, ‘I call’ with all end-stopped lines emphasise Michael’s certainty of who he is as he subsequently says, ‘You can call me The Black Flamingo’. The verse is indeed a celebration of individuality. It is also a warning, not to be defined by labels.
Presented as notes, Atta includes: ‘How to Do Drag’, ‘What’s it like to be a Black Drag Artist (for those of you who aren’t)’ and ‘How to Come Out as Gay’. The lines from these ‘How to…’ notes that linger are: ‘Remember you have the right to be proud. / Remember you have the right to be you.’ Through the repetition of ‘remember’ and ‘right’ the lines form an uplifting message of hope.
The Black Flamingo explores many dichotomies throughout – gay and straight, female and male, Black and White but ultimately it is a testimony that nothing is better than being yourself. The Black Flamingo is easily one of the best novels of verse fiction and one that everyone should read.
Themes: identity, belonging, sexuality, race, gender, coming of age, relationships, family, acceptance, mother-son relationships, self-discovery, inner truth, hope
All pictures and writing are my own unless otherwise credited. Permission must be obtained before any image reproduction and credit must be issued in any image reproduction or quotations.
The Gold Shoe Writer 