Now Lila Knows

April 18, 2022
Nunez (Even in Paradise) returns with an uneven mix of romance and commentary on racial injustice. Lila Bonnard, an Oxford-educated professor from the Caribbean island of St. Marie, is hired to teach at Mayfield College in Vermont. Her fiancé, Robert, discourages her from taking the job, while her grandmother (and de facto parent) opposes her engagement. On Lila’s first day in Mayfield, she witnesses the police shooting of an unarmed Black professor. Lila deals with pressure from her Black colleagues to report what she saw to the police, after hesitating over fear of reprisal since she’s an immigrant. She also grapples with unwilling students, hostile white colleagues, and a widening rift with Robert. Lila grows close to handsome white civil rights lawyer Clive, and learns from him about the opioid epidemic’s local impact. The racial politics of a small town in Vermont, as seen through Lila’s eyes, provides an illuminating counterplay between Caribbean and American Blackness, particularly as Lila reflects on the Shakespeare character of Caliban through a post-colonial lens, but too often the characters play too closely to type. It has its moments, but it doesn’t quite hang together. Agent: Malaika Adero, Adero’s Literary Tribe, LLC.

May 15, 2022
After witnessing a Black man shot by police in Vermont, a Caribbean professor tries to decide whether to take action. When Lila Bonnard arrives in a small, predominantly White Vermont town, her fiance warns her "not to get involved in America's racial problem." On the way from the airport to the apartment where she'll stay for a year's teaching appointment, though, Lila witnesses police shoot and kill a Black man attempting to resuscitate a White woman. Before she understands what's happened, Lila is involved. The few Black faculty members are eager for Lila to come forward with what she knows. The man who was killed, Ron Brown, had been a professor at the college and a friend of theirs. But Lila, an immigrant, is frightened of the ramifications of speaking out, and her fiance continues to warn against her involvement. Nunez's latest novel, though it occasionally takes on the pacing and the plotting of a thriller--someone slips a threatening, unsigned note under Lila's door--is essentially a quiet account of one woman's gradual awakening. As a Black Caribbean, Lila's experience and understanding of racism differ rather drastically from those of her new African American colleagues. The novel traces her growing understanding of the dynamics at play in American racism. Along those lines, Nunez's prose is thoughtful, nuanced, and unrushed. But there are minor moments that feel improbable--not because the events described are outlandish, but because characters appear to respond to situations in ways that seem unlikely. Minutes after seeing Brown shot dead, for example, Lila has a casual conversation with her landlady in which she mentions, "My grandmother loves the soaps, especially General Hospital. You can't speak to her when General Hospital is on." Then, too, not all Nunez's characters are painted with the same fine brush as Lila, and the dialogue often feels stilted. Still, as a portrait of Lila's political and racial awakening, the novel is a grand success. A nuanced portrait of a Caribbean woman's gradual enlightenment.

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July 15, 2022
On the day that Caribbean English professor Lila Bonnard arrives in rural Vermont on a one-year teaching assignment, she witnesses the shooting of a Black man on the street, a political science professor who would have been a colleague. The tragedy sucks Lila into a maelstrom of complexities. Having watched the injustices African Americans suffer from a distance, she is unsure about her allegiances and responsibilities. On a temporary visa, she wants to lie low. But her skin color will not allow her to set her mind at ease. She is caught between two sets of opinions: one voiced by her fianc� at home who insists that Lila is only a bystander and should not muddy her hands by taking a stance, and those voiced by the small set of her fellow Black faculty members who want Lila to fully explore her commonality with the African American experience. Nunez (Even in Paradise, 2016) raises nuanced questions about discrimination and its variants connected to race, colorism, and country. Unfortunately, heavy-handed discussions frequently threaten to smother the plot and the story does not provide sufficient depth for a novel that explores provocative and important themes.

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