Book Discussion of Everywhere You Don’t Belong by Gabriel Bump The Urban Life Experience Book Discussion Series continued on Sept. 18 th at the Wilson Library. Nine of us met in person, while two more people joined in via Zoom. This was one of our most contentious book discussions ever. The people who hated the book were so strong in their assessment that I think that the people who liked it were almost afraid to admit that they liked it. The characters may not be as fleshed out as they could have been and of course the plot is improbable but there were some really funny parts in the book. I understand that the author had studied playwriting, which makes sense because scenes and dialogue are the standout qualities. This book has also been optioned to become a television series. The protagonist is Claude McKay Love, an average Black young man living on Chicago’s South Side with his grandmother and her friend Paul. Claude’s parents abandoned him when he was...
The Urban Life Experience Book Discussion Series meets approximately once every six weeks at the Courtland S. Wilson Branch of the New Haven Free Public Library in New Haven, CT.