As soon as I finished this, I went to Nelson's instagram to look at his photos, the pictures he's taken of strangers & loved ones -- it's hard not to want to, when this novel has such a specific, photographic sensibility, suspending impressions & details & movements in time & space, playing with light & shadow & shifting shapes. Even harder not to want to because it ends so beautifully & so poignantly, with an image of what photography can do in moving beyond looking at someone to seeing them, in translating people to each other & to themselves.

The photos I found were beautiful, as moving and tender and attentive and serious and joyful as Open Water -- there's a vulnerability to both, an honouring of the fragile thing that connects the subject to the artist to the audience, image to reality, memory to life.

(I also felt reminded of Zadie Smith's essay on Joy throughout, the difference between pleasure, a comfortable good thing, and joy, which is bigger & more dizzying & shadowed by terror. This novel, thinking as it does about moments of connection and community between black people, of dancing & sweaty nights out & shared passion, of freedom and falling in love, but also about racist violence, the ways that white supremacy manifest self-surveillance & self-suppression as self-protection, the brutality of everyday, conversational dehumanisation -- it's Zadie Smith's joy that I mean when i call it joyful, the terrifying vulnerability of loving & living despite.)

3.5/5 - I love reading debut novels and this is no exception. Caleb Azumah Nelson is a beautiful writer and the prose in Open Water are stunning. The second person perspective is just not for me. I really wanted to get into it far more than I did but I just couldn't get passed it.

If second person perspective is something that you enjoy in a novel, I would highly recommend this. The story is beautiful, I liked the characters and would encourage others to pick it up.

*Thank you NetGalley and Grove Atlantic for the e-ARC of Open Water for my honest option.

Shout outs to @NetGalley for the arc Open Water by Caleb Azumah Nelson is an ode to Black men, Black love and Black existence. It’s tentative, sensitive and gorgeously written novel, Nelson did not come to play! This story follows 26-year-old writer photographer in London who meets and falls in love with a dancer. they meet and immediately become everything to each other first as “friends” and then lovers- you already know tho. Even as their relationship turns evermore romantic the protagonist is plagued with an aged old violent memory that haunts his reality as is I'm sure the reality of Black men in the world. I loved how sensitive, loving and tentative the protag was, he said (more or less) no to toxic masculinity which we love to see. Shout out to soft Black men. However some things are harder to burden with your love ones even as you can feel it creating a seemingly impregnable wall around you. The conflict, the internal struggle and the use of second point of view worked really well together imo, the distance and silence was defs amplified and while it was as a whole it was a thing to get used to and did become a bit tiresome (towards the end) I enjoyed it.I adored the constant mentions with such heart to Black art. The Kendrick Lamar, Alec Bladwin and Zadie Smith to name a few were appreciated! I ordered Zadie Smith’s NW bc of dudes obsession with it, there’s a funny but relatable moment where he meets Zadie Smith at a signing and he’s like what do I say to articulate how profoundly this book has impacted me,that has found such a cherished home in me and I FELT that. Some lines I loved!  “Every time you remember something, the memory weakens, as you’re remembering the last recollection, rather than the memory itself. Nothing can remain intact. Still, it does not stop you wanting, it does not stop you longing.” And “You run and wave and laugh until the train gathers speed and the platform runs out. She escapes the frame, until it is just you on the platform, a little breathless, a little ecstatic, a little sad.’

This book is a love story. As in any love story there are moments of disagreement, fascination, total surrender and absolute reserve.

But Open water is so much more than that because it also raises very deep issues such as what it really means to be black and the vulnerability of knowing that, in certain societies, it implies a vital risk. So many questions are raised in the book:
Are we the sum of our traumas? Does the way blackness is defined today contain the entirety of being black or it just refers to a body, a vessel? Is freedom nothing but the distance between hunter and prey?

The book is narrated from the second person and despite being the protagonist the one questioned by the narrator, it is also at some point the reader who is questioned. And all those questions are so welcomed and necessary.
It is so well written, so sentimental in the best way possible.
I want to read everything
Caleb Azumah Nelson writes from now on. This work is a beauty.

Open Water is only 145 pages and written in second person. I know many readers don’t like reading second person narration, and I understand that because it can feel a bit distant. I love it though, and think it’s personal and intimate, like receiving a letter from your beloved; especially when written in lyrical prose like this one.

This book is a tender story with some references to James Baldwin, about two artists becoming friends and then falling in love, a dancer and a photographer. They both went to private schools, both being one of the only Black kids there. So, of course he became a basketball player ..., and she became a dancer because while dancing, she didn’t feel left out. So they become friends. But when they’re finally in a relationship, he has difficulties showing his own vulnerability, his fears.

It’s not an easy read due to the above mentioned second person narration, no names, just a boy and a girl. I had to fully concentrate on reading the story. At times, I even found myself just indulging the lyricism, the rhythm, like hearing a song and feeling all different kinds of emotions without hearing the words. And then I had to swap back because I didn’t understand the story anymore, and therefore didn’t connect to the MC’s as much as I wanted to. Even the (few) dialogues felt like prose sometimes.

So, don’t read this book just for the plot or the characters or the story; for me the writing felt more important to the author than the story itself. Writing sentences, one even more beautiful than the other, making those sentences feel like a beautiful poem. I have to admit, I missed the story sometimes, the dialogues; reading just snippets. But if you love lyrical prose, and want to let it flood you, this might be the book for you.

It’s hard for me to rate this book. Because of the prose and the premise it’s easily a 4 star, maybe even more. Because of the storyline itself I tend to rate lower. At first my overall rating was 4 stars but after a few days of thinking about it, I make it a 3 star rating because of the storyline. It’s a shame Goodreads doesn’t have half stars because then I would give this book a 3.5 star rating.

Such a beautifully written book that I devoured slowly at the beginning of the month. I found the story as intense as the love between the two main characters within the story. It was one of those books you don't want to put down but you don't want to finish it too fast.

Two young black artists meet and there is a slow intense burn bubbling underneath their friendship that turns them into lovers.

But underneath their inevitability is a story of race and what it means to be black along with a never ending fear and challenged masculinity.

The way their love not only for each other but their passion for their art is described seems almost poetic at heart, yet the underlining story is strong and resilient in this must read debut.
Thank you Caleb and Netgalley for this phenomenonal read

Dances entirely to its own tune. Full of heart but also intelligent and isn't shy about that (taking into consideration references to other works of art by black people). The language is really what sets this one apart.

Based on the advanced practice for "Open Water," I had high expectations. But unfortunately the informal second-person narrative did not connect me to the story. I did not feel like I was a character in the book, which I think is the point? Caleb Azumah Nelson does a nice job of describing the new feelings of a budding romance, but this one wasn't a page-turner.

I loved the strength of vision here - this lyric, circular, fragmented novel makes you read it in its own way, while at the same time yielding lots of slightly more conventional pleasures. If you're a sucker for romances between smart people set in London - the South Bank! Queuing up for food in an overly lit chip shop after a night out! Gigs in sweaty places! Wondering how long it's going to take to get back north or south (mostly south) even as you drag yourself further than all transport options! - this is better and more true-to-life than most books with such romances.

Caleb Azumah Nelson really captures that floaty, romantic, I'm-in-the-right-place feeling. He also addresses other bodily feelings, what it is to be a young black man in London, what it's like to be looked at and not seen, as the narrator says. The novella moves between these raw feelings and somehow melds them together, into a very compelling and often disconcerting read. Nelson imbues the reader with the same sense of disorientation, which for the narrator is an everyday experience. An exciting debut with a genuinely original voice.

Open Water is Caleb Azumah Nelson’s debut novel about two Black artists falling in and out of love in London. The book is written in second person narration so I think for me personally, it can take away from the story. In this case, however, it kind of works because the actual prose is quite lovely. There are run on sentences but I found myself highlighting so much of the book.

The book takes us on a journey of two friends becoming more and eventually collapsing. We see their awkwardness blossom into love and friendship. Within this love story, we catch glimpses of what it’s like to be living in a world as a Black man trying to come to terms with racism and police brutality. Our main character (AKA: the reader) struggles with this and tries to remain strong and brave. He refuses to show emotions and his vulnerability but this takes a toll on him. He is afraid of falling into a depression over the injustice he endures and begins to shut the world out, including his girlfriend.

If you can adjust to the writing of the story, I would recommend this as it is a slow build into emotions, insecurities, confusion, love, and so much more.

Thank you to Netgalley and to Grove Atlantic for the advanced copy of this book.

So moving and beautiful. A story about love. Falling in love, out of love. Just a wonderful wonderful read that I wanted to keep going.

Thank you NetGalley for granting me access to this story. I will say that the 2nd person narrative style wasn’t for me and turned me off but I was able to get through the story and I could really relate to the main character as he struggled with his Blackness and how it shaped his experiences. I would recommend this to others.