Wikipedia

Open Water (novel)

Caleb Azumah Nelson’s debut novel Open Water is a romance novel about two Black people. The book deals with themes such as race, love and masculinity. The book was published 4 February 2021 by Penguin Books and is written in second person perspective to form a bond between the reader and the main character.

Open Water
AuthorCaleb Azumah Nelson
LanguageEnglish
GenreRomance
PublisherViking Press UK (UK)
Grove Press (US)
Publication date
4 February 2021 (UK)
13 April 2021 (US)
Publication placeUnited Kingdom
United States
Media typePrint (hardcover, paperback), ebook, Kindle
Pages145 pp
AwardsCosta—First Novel (2021)
Betty Trask Award (2022)
Somerset Maugham Award (2022)
ISBN9780241448779
(UK 1st ed)
OCLC1154813692
823/.92
LC ClassPR6114.E57 O64 2021


Plot

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The book begins with you (the main character) walking into a bar where you see a beautiful woman who your friend knows. You instantly feel a connection and you ask your friend to introduce the two of you which he does, but you find out your friend and the woman are together. You learn that she's a dancer and she learns that you're a photographer. A couple of weeks later you meet and she suggests that you start working on a documentary on Black people you agree, and you start meeting more often. These meetings strengthen your connection and you learn more about each other, how you both went to private school and how being one of the few Black kids affected you. How you had to find a hobby that became a safespace for you, a place to escape when the everyday racism became too much. You connected through your shared experience of life, how you got treated differently because of your skin color, how you are seen as a Black body rather than a human and how this has made you feel like you don't belong anywhere. These shared experiences deepen your relationship and your feelings grow. She becomes a safe space, someone you can talk to, cry before and be yourself with without being judged. You can cry because you're sad that your grandmother died, or that your friend got killed, because she will be there to hold you. The woman and your friend break up and even though you know it's wrong you start hanging out with her even more, and your relationship becomes more physical. But there is always something holding you back from being together even though you’re obviously right for each other. The constant fear and violence is holding you back, because being Black means inequality, it means injustice from not only society but also the police who are supposed to protect you. Throughout the book you see different situations where injustice shows through, where the police are involved. How you have at different times met the police and had false accusations thrown your way because they have already mentally fit you into a box, where you are a Black body rather than a name. You have seen how this has cost some of your friends their lives and how this makes you live in constant fear. The fear of opening up and being vulnerable holds you back –– how can a relationship make progress if you can’t even open up about your traumas, feelings and fears? This ultimately leads to a break-up between the two of you, you don’t tell her how you feel and she feels like you’ve been shutting her out. This break-up makes you numb and the music in your life disappears with her, you are just a body without feelings living the same life everyday. It takes a year before you muster up the courage and tell her about your fears and desires, she tells you about her own fears and this makes the music and emotions in your life come back and you cry for her, for you and for the two of you together.

Major themes

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Racism/Race

Open Water by Azumah Nelson describes the feeling of segregation and separation as being scared and suppressed because you’re not allowed to express yourselves to a hearing world because you are silenced. You’re not allowed to speak because people have already decided what you are before you have even spoken, they label you as angry, loud, bold and brash because you are born that way. They have decided that you are a threat without any basis for it. How the police have the same view and how this has affected Black people in a negative way, how this has created a constant fear in the Black community because even though you’re innocent your life is still at risk. In the book Azumah Nelson writes that you and other black people find you have a common understanding, you have all experienced the same thing, that only amongst each other do you feel seen as a human rather than a black body. That when you are together is the only time when you feel free. 

Love

The novel’s take on love is that it’s complicated and you can’t choose who you fall in love with. The novel portrays this through the character, you, who falls for his friend's ex-girlfriend. Even though both of you know it’s wrong, the connection and love between the two of you has created a safe space. For you this relationship has grounded you, she has become a person whom you feel safe with, who you can express your feelings and desires to without being judged, but rather loved. This relationship between the two of you is tender, and you have a deep understanding of each other because of your past and the difficulties of being Black –– this understanding that makes it possible to be yourself in a world where it's almost impossible. But love isn’t simple, you have traumas and fears which are holding you back; however by opening up you feel a weight lifting off your shoulder. Because when you open up she sees the whole of you, and when she stays despite all your uglies ,that's when you know that you are being seen and loved. 

Masculinity and vulnerability

Open Water by Azumah Nelson shows masculinity through a character with a lot of feelings and shows how this affects him. How he has a hard time expressing how he feels because that goes against the principles of masculinity. In your inner monologue Azumah Nelson writes about strong feelings that, as the story goes on, you are able to express to the woman whom you have a relationship with –– in this way Nelson tries to show that expressing yourself, your fears, insecurities and feelings overall doesn't make you less of a man. The novel also takes in consideration how manhood changes when you’re Black, how the expectations placed upon you differ depending on your skin color. How society sees you as a strong and tough skin when this necessarily isn't the case, how this restricts you and how your emotions well up to the point where you can’t take it anymore. How this also creates problems in your social life, when you feel different things but aren't able to express them, and how this strains or even destroys relationships like the one between you and the woman.

Personal background

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The year before Azumah Nelson began writing Open Water, his godfather, aunt, and three grandparents died.[1] He spoke of his writing at the time, saying it "came about as I was trying to afford my grief, and in turn, myself, more form and detail. I didn’t want to feel so hazy anymore. So I was spending a lot of the time at libraries, gallery spaces, cinemas, concerts, trying to go past the level of knowing, towards feeling, and asking where those feelings come from. That’s a question which is written throughout Open Water. How do you feel?”[2] 

Azumah Nelson continued, "There’s a level of vulnerability which love demands. To ask someone to see you is to ask someone to see all of you and trusting someone with all of you can be difficult. To see all this beauty and rhythm and joy but also to see your uglier parts, your pain, your grief. But it’s wonderful when it does happen, when you are no longer being looked at, but being seen.”[1] 

The writer said "he had to make himself vulnerable to write it," much like the poet Morgan Parker says writers sometimes must "[dig] so deep you touch bone."[1] Azumah Nelson said, "I feel like I did this and then some. It is a joy to write but at times, quite heartbreaking. I guess, I’d love for readers not just to know what I’m saying, but to feel it too. The book is written in the second person so it’s very intimate, and in that way when a question is asked, I’m asking both myself and the reader. When I’m asking, How do you feel? That question comes both ways."[1] 

Genre and style

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Open Water is a contemporary romance novel with a subgenre of coming-of-age. Open Water is written in second person and the main character is never named but rather referred to as you to create a bond between you and the characters.

Development history

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Nelson is also a photographer and to write Open Water he told Penguin, his publisher, in an interview that he looked at pictures he had taken and put them into words, how they made him feel, what they said. This is also a part of the book where the main character is a photographer and captures different moments through his lens; he describes how they look as well as how they make you feel. In the same interview Azumah Nelson tells his publisher Penguin about the background of why he wrote the book. He says “Open Water is a love story but it’s also an ode to everything I love: South East London and books, music and photography, film and fine art. I wanted to write a book which read like an album, like music, so musicians such as Kendrick Lamar and Solange and J Dilla were instrumental to the conception of the book. Photography too – I often feel like when I’m writing, I’m transcribing snapshots of moments I can see.”[3]


Release history

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Open Water was first published 4 February 2021 by Viking Press in the UK, under the Viking UK imprint of Penguin Random House Penguin Random House where it was released in both ebook and hardcover format. The US was the first to release a paperback version of Open Water, and the paperback edition was released 13 April 2021 by Grove Press (they also released an ebook version as well as a Kindle version). Open Water was later republished by Penguin Random House as a paperback on 3 February 2022.

Penguin later reprinted a paperback on 3 February 2022.

Date Country Language Publisher Format ISBN / Identification
4 February 2021   UK English Viking Press UK Hardcover 1st ed. ISBN 9780241448779
Penguin ebook ISBN 9780241989470
Kindle ASIN B088NRG888
13 April 2021   US Grove Press Paperback 1st ed. ISBN 9780802157942
ebook ISBN 9780802157959
Kindle ASIN B08L9QFG7J
3 February 2022   UK Penguin Paperback reprint ISBN 9780241448786

In translation

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The novel has been translated into several languages, including Spanish, French, Italian, Dutch, Greek, Swedish, Portuguese, Slovenian, Polish, and Chinese.[citation needed]

Reception

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Reviews

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Open Water received starred reviews from Library Journal[4] and Booklist,[5] as well as positive reviews from Kirkus Reviews,[6] The Guardian,[7] The New York Times Book Review,[8] Chicago Review of Books,[9] The Wall Street Journal,[10] The Irish Times,[11] Los Angeles Review of Books,[12] Washington Independent Review of Books,[13] and Publishers Weekly.[14]

As a debut, the book has been called "truly exceptional,"[5] "exciting, ambitious,"[7] "breathtaking,"[14] and "searing."[6]

Guernica's Mary Wang applauded Azumah Nelson's writing, saying, "Open Water's narrative moves like jazz, punctured with loops, diversions, and improvisation. The characters' relationship is sketched through a series of images that emerge as quickly as they fade, as if tied to a rolling film reel."[15]

Ploughshares' Brady Brickner-Wood provided a mixed review, noting that the book is "brimming with brilliant ideas and charming interiority," but it "struggles to temper its lyricism and narrative ambitions, resulting in a captivating if not uneven read."[16] Despite criticisms, Brickner-Wood called Open Water "a moving novel that celebrates Black art and explores generational trauma."

TIME named Open Water one of the best novels of the year,[17] and The Observer named it one of the top ten debut novels of the year.[18]

Awards

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Year Award Category Result Ref.
2021 Booklist's Best First Novels — Top 10 [19]
Costa Book Award First Novel Won [14][1]
Desmond Elliott Prize — Longlisted [20]
Waterstones Book of the Year — Shortlisted [21]
2022 Betty Trask Award — Won [22]
Somerset Maugham Award — Won [22]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e Shaffi, Sarah; Vincent, Alice (11 January 2021). "2021 debuts: get to know our new authors". Penguin Publishing Group. Archived from the original on 12 August 2021. Retrieved 7 January 2022.
  2. ^ Shaffi, Sarah; Vincent, Alice (11 January 2021). "2021 debuts: get to know our new authors". Penguin Publishing Group. Archived from the original on 12 August 2021. Retrieved 7 January 2022.
  3. ^ "'I met Malorie Blackman and was starstruck': 21 Questions with Caleb Azumah Nelson". www.penguin.co.uk. 1 February 2021. Retrieved 19 November 2024.
  4. ^ Bissell, Sally (1 May 2021). "Open Water". Library Journal. Retrieved 7 January 2022.
  5. ^ a b Tommelleo, Enobong (15 February 2021). "Open Water". Booklist. Archived from the original on 7 November 2021. Retrieved 7 January 2022.
  6. ^ a b "Open Water". Kirkus Reviews. 3 March 2021. Archived from the original on 14 May 2021. Retrieved 7 January 2022.
  7. ^ a b Donkor, Michael (19 February 2021). "Open Water by Caleb Azumah Nelson review – an exciting, ambitious debut". the Guardian. Archived from the original on 5 January 2022. Retrieved 7 January 2022.
  8. ^ Christensen, Lauren (7 April 2021). "For Caleb Azumah Nelson, There's Freedom in Feeling Seen". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on 25 December 2021. Retrieved 7 January 2022.
  9. ^ Ramji, Shazia Hafiz (26 April 2021). ""Is there a greater flex than love?": Uncompromising Black Joy in "Open Water"". Chicago Review of Books. Archived from the original on 29 September 2021. Retrieved 7 January 2022.
  10. ^ Sacks, Sam (16 April 2021). "Fiction: 'Open Water' Review". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Archived from the original on 24 April 2021. Retrieved 7 January 2022.
  11. ^ Gilmartin, Sarah. "Open Water: Promising novel on pervasive racism in London". The Irish Times. Retrieved 7 January 2022.
  12. ^ Yeboah, Tryphena (21 August 2021). "A Deep Dive into Caleb Azumah Nelson's "Open Water"". Los Angeles Review of Books. Archived from the original on 28 September 2021. Retrieved 7 January 2022.
  13. ^ "Open Water | Washington Independent Review of Books". www.washingtonindependentreviewofbooks.com. Archived from the original on 21 April 2021. Retrieved 7 January 2022.
  14. ^ a b c "Fiction Book Review: Open Water by Caleb Azumah Nelson. Black Cat, $16 trade paper (176p) ISBN 978-0-8021-5794-2". PublishersWeekly.com. Archived from the original on 15 May 2021. Retrieved 7 January 2022.
  15. ^ Wang, Mary (23 April 2021). "Caleb Azumah Nelson: "The confrontation with myself enabled me to find a brief freedom."". Guernica. Archived from the original on 16 May 2021. Retrieved 7 January 2022.
  16. ^ Brickner-Wood, Brady (9 April 2021). "Open Water by Caleb Azumah Nelson". Ploughshares. Archived from the original on 7 May 2021. Retrieved 7 January 2022.
  17. ^ "The 10 Best Fiction Books of 2021". Time. Archived from the original on 31 December 2021. Retrieved 7 January 2022.
  18. ^ "Caleb Azumah Nelson: We meet Lewisham's breakthrough novelist". Catford Chronicle. Retrieved 7 January 2022.
  19. ^ Seaman, Donna (1 November 2021). "Top 10 First Novels: 2021". Booklist. Archived from the original on 7 January 2022. Retrieved 7 January 2022.
  20. ^ Blau, Jessica Anya (20 April 2021). "Awards: Desmond Elliott Longlist". Shelf Awareness. Archived from the original on 27 April 2021. Retrieved 7 January 2022.
  21. ^ Nygaard, Mads (29 October 2021). "Awards: Kirkus Winners; Waterstones Book of the Year Shortlist". Shelf Awareness. Archived from the original on 19 November 2021. Retrieved 7 January 2022.
  22. ^ a b "News | The Society of Authors". societyofauthors.org. Retrieved 6 June 2022.

https://www.penguin.co.uk/articles/2021/02/caleb-azumah-nelson-open-water-author-interview https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/apr/30/novelist-caleb-azumah-nelson-small-worlds-open-water-ghana-interview https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/53414230-open-water

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