Book Review: “A Map to the Door of No Return” by Dionne Brand
The Domain of the Diaspora
Dionne Brand is one of Canada’s most celebrated writers, at least in my eyes. I’ve only read two of her previous works, the affecting What We All Long For and her experimental novel Theory. To a certain degree, I’m hot and cold on her. Still, I do respect her for her incredible academic and intellectual brain. Originally published in Canada in 2001, A Map to the Door of No Return — a long-form essay — was republished in her native land last year and is now being published for the first time south of the border in the United States, this time with a new afterword that does little to illuminate the text presented (it was highly specialized — the sort of thing you might read in a PhD dissertation.) Though dated and referencing culturally specific things of the year it was first published, the essay is intriguing — even if there were parts I didn’t understand. Effectively fusing a memoir and cultural criticism, A Map to the Door of No Return is groundbreaking. It accounts for the Black Diaspora and its existence without context or history. Sure, everyone knows where slaves were stolen from — Africa. But where in Africa? How can a person’s lineage be traced back to the continent when slave owners shoddily kept records? And also, there’s the notion that a door of no return — metaphorically speaking — can be many doors. Doors from many different places, it seems.
The most interesting thing about this book is how Brand frames her Canadian-ness. She frequently refers to her home city of Toronto — if I can get away with calling Toronto her home city without seeming ignorant to what I think this book is trying to say — as American, as that frame of reference is only what people in the Caribbean can think of when trying to locate her latest home. I find that interesting because Toronto is Canada’s most American city, with all its gun violence and urban sprawl. Visiting Toronto — and I haven’t been back there in 15 years now — is a little like visiting a place of smug self-importance, a place that doesn’t feel remotely Canadian, and a place that exists without borders with all its multicultural fabric. Taken apart from the book’s focus on race, this idea fascinates me because it would imply that we are one big world and lines drawn on maps don’t matter. However, it’s also a scary thought because the United States terrifies me, a feeling bolstered by living in Toronto for two years as an adult. (Interestingly, Brand tells us in this work that she used to live on the same small street that I did 15 years ago. It’s a small world after all.)
The memoir aspects of this book are also intriguing, but they can sometimes feel vague and sparse in details — which may be the whole point of this writing. Although I’m not entirely sure what it’s doing in this book to an extent, Brand talks about the culture shock she experiences when she leaves the city for a home in the Kawarthas that she inhabits. She later overlays this experience with the experience of running into people from the same region of the West Indies that she’s from, trying to explain to them that she is of the Town but also not of the Town. (I hope I’m not mangling my interpretation of the prose.) Aside from this, much of the text is political and recounts her escape from certain death during the American invasion of Grenada. However, I’m unsure if she was living there or visiting or what her connection to that specific island was when she was born in Trinidad and Tobago — you must visit her Wikipedia page to understand the connection, which may be a fault of this still impressive work.
Overall, I liked A Map to the Door of No Return as an intellectual exercise, even if some of its content was slightly over my head. I’m glad that a work of Canadian non-fiction will now find an audience among Americans who may be interested in seeing beyond their own culture and borders. This sterling academic work should cement Brand’s reputation as a writer of significant importance. I’ll be honest and say that it is a little haphazard. I wish that some of the language was more precise rather than speaking in figurative tones to be more easily understood by the reader — but perhaps I, again, am missing the point. I feel that this book will linger in my consciousness. It should be read by anybody interested in learning more about the Black Canadian Diaspora and what it means to be a person of color in the Great White North. Who knows. Maybe I’ll have to reread it to tease out things I missed the first time, which is as good a recommendation as possible. This intrigues.
Dionne Brand’s A Map to the Door of No Return: Notes to Belonging was published by Picador on October 1, 2024.
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