Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self by Danielle Evans
Riverhead Books, September 2010
I first saw Evans at an AWP conference a few years ago and loved the way she spoke. When I heard the title of her book, I knew I had to read her writing. “Before you suffocate your own fool self” is a quote from Donna Kate Rushin’s “The Bridge Poem.” The poem suggests a speaker who must remind someone to not be foolish, to take a deep breath and not let the worst version kill the best versions of him/herself.
Looking at Evans’s stories, I can surmise why she chose this quote and title. The characters often find themselves in some sort of trouble, but never the same kind of trouble, whether it’s being honest about being a virgin pretending/wanting to handle grown-up relations, like Erica in the story “Virgins,” or Tara nearly dying the summer she lives with her white grandmother and her cousin in “Snakes.”
You might be wondering why I pointed out the grandmother is white. The characters in Suffocate are, more often than not, black. Evans doesn’t come out and say this; instead she leaves room for the readers to figure it out, which doesn’t take long if the character is younger, around teen aged. For instance, in “Virgins,” when Erica, Michael, and Jasmine are at the pool, Jasmine is quick to harass Michael for wearing sunblock: “Sunscreen…is some white-people shit. That’s them white girls you’ve been hanging out with, got you wearing sunscreen. Black people don’t burn.” Erica the narrator reassures us in that Michael is lighter than Jasmine, and that she is lighter than Michael, but that really all three of them burn in the sun. Evans goes on to make references to the differences between black and white adolescents, comparing their hair (“Snakes”), examining the race of the students and the amount money their public school has (“Robert E. Lee is Dead”), and even the value of the eggs of white versus black college women (“Harvest”). I appreciated Evans’s ability to weave race into her stories without having it be the entire focus of characters’ lives. After all, if readers are led to believe people are nothing more than their race, rather than their race being a part of their identity, the author would be doing a disservice.
The non-teenage characters don’t come right out and talk about race, which creates a sort of washing away of stereotypes: there are no thugs, baby mamas, or big mamas who beat sense into her grandchildren, images we’ve all seen on movies and television. These characters are nuanced. They go to school, have sex, make friends, consider their economic options, struggle with their parents. In “The King of a Vast Empire,” Liddie, her brother Terrence, and their parents were in a car accident years ago. Now, Liddie guilts her parents whenever she wants something, or doesn’t want to do something, by casually flashing the large scar on her forehead. They all must remember how she didn’t speak for years after the accident, that she is not permanent, and, therefore, should have her way — even if she wants to be an elephant trainer after having gone to college for some time.
Evans’s prose has depth and variety, switching points of view from first to third, using male and female narrators, and looking through the eyes of different age groups (children, teens, college students, adults). The stories don’t feel like the same subject hashed out over and over again, like some story collections, which leaves me bored. Her collection will keep you entertained and interested.
Procurement: My sweet ma gave me birthday money, so I bought this book on Amazon
Grab the Lapels 
Very good information. Lucky me I recently
found your website by accident (stumbleupon). I have bookmarked it for later!
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Cool! It’s all women, or folks who identify as women, only–even when I’m writing a post that is not a review. I do hope you come back!
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I’m glad you allow (tolerate) guy readers and commenters. And gotta love mums who give you money/book vouchers though I used to give my late father lists of books so he would have an excuse to go second hand book shopping. I like the sound of this book BTW
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Guys are always welcome to join in the conversation. Your dad was a bookworm too, huh? 🙂
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And my kids after me. Grandkids too I think.
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An intriguing title though if it wasn’t shelved correctly in the bookshop I might have thought it was a self help book
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Ha! That seems like the kind of book that would make me giggle if I were in the depths of depression.
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Interesting! Definitely one I will check out.
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Thanks for stopping by, TJ!
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That does look like an interesting read.
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Sounds like an interesting read. I don’t typically go for short stories, but this sounds really interesting. Great review!
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Thanks so much! We need a short story month, like how we have novella November.
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It might be time to read some short stories! Loved your last line 😛
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Thanks 😊
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I like how you comment on race not being the focal point of the story. I feel that sometimes subtlety is much more powerful. Sounds like a very realistic read, and love the background you gave on the title. 🙂 Hope you are doing well.
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I felt weird at first making that comment because I believe race is important, but if the whole story is about being a certain race and leaves out the nuance, the whole thing feels like a lecture instead of a novel. I’m doing okay; we’ve hit the busy part of the semester right before fall break (and not all colleges get a fall break!). How are you? How’s school? I can’t remember what grade you’re in..
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Yes definitely agree with you. I’m right alongside you, counting down the days until Thanksgiving! I’m a senior now, so working on college apps is both exciting and terribly boring.
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Hooray! You’re certainly read and write much better than many college students. I hope you are aiming high with your college choices!
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Thank you so much ❤ I think I am!
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I’m really looking forward to this one; it’s been on my TBR for awhile, so I guess I just need to go birthday-book shopping, right? 🙂 (Yes, it’s my birthday month too: happy birthday!)
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So it’s been on your radar for some time? When did you first hear about it?
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This was already on my TBR listing, though I didn’t make a note as to where I first heard of it. Thanks for your insight! Definitely sounds like one that would resonate for me!
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Do you remember where you first heard about it?
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This sounds like a great collection! I’d be particularly interested to read the ones with teenage protags, even if they’re not so nuanced.
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[…] The newly-released collection of short stories The Office of Historical Corrections: A Novella and Stories by Danielle Evans wasn’t as well-crafted as I thought it would be. If you were excited about Evans’s new collection and had it on your TBR — I know many of you did — consider pivoting to her older collection, Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self. […]
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