An Absentee Father

“Blood is thicker than water.” So the old proverb goes. Most of us are raised to believe in the power of kinship and blood relations. We are expected to respect and value our blood ties. It is incumbent upon us to defer to our families and relatives. In times of victory, they are among the first ones Whenever we encounter hardships or crossroads, we are bound to find a safe haven in the company of our family. When we find ourselves in dire straits, we are supposed to find comfort and reprieve in our families and relatives. Our relatives, in turn, are duty-bound to help in these times of need. So another proverb goes, “Family comes first.” This entails that our foremost responsibility is to our families and relatives.

However, families can be complex; they are rarely straightforward. Some families are dysfunctional. Some don’t fall within the ambit of conventional family arrangements. After all, no family is perfect. Take the case of the Pennington family, the central character in Candice Carty-Williams’s sophomore novel, People Person. The patriarch, Cyril Pennington was a Jamaican-born south London-bred bus driver. A seemingly wayward character, he loves vinyl and beer. He was also a Casanova of some sort, with his charms working on four women with whom he would sire five children; at least these five were the ones he acknowledged. He held no pretensions about who he was.

Cyril, however, was not the fatherly type. Mastering the art of emotional and even physical detachment, he saw himself more as a “people person,” hence, the book’s title, than as a father. All of these were established within the opening sentences of the novel. It comes as no surprise then that his five children – Nikisha, Danny, Dimple, Elizabeth, or Lizzie for short, and Prynce – were raised by their mothers. They knew about Cyril’s existence but they all grew up without a father figure. They also barely knew about each other’s existence until one day, when his youngest was nine and his oldest nineteen, Cyril decided to play the father part: “this day would be the day that they all met.”

“The followers were great, but the adrenalin of so much exposure pulsed through her veins. The notifications had carried on coming thick and fast throughout the day, the digital attention increasing before her eyes. But that comment, that one comment had stuck with her and was going round and round in her head.”

~ Candice Carty-Williams, People Person

One by one, he fetched his five children from their homes, with some against their mother’s wills. He drove them to Clapham Common where he bought them ice cream and asked them to look at each other’s faces carefully. This was a caveat so that they wouldn’t “fall in love or have sex or any of dem tings.” The mini-reunion, however, did not go as planned – it was awkward – although it would be one of the siblings’ earliest memories together. Before the siblings departed, Nikisha, the oldest, told her siblings that although they had very little in common except for the obvious, they could still call on her when they needed help. They are blood, after all.

Unfortunately, it would take years before they would hear from each other again. The story then flashes forward, fifteen years after the sibling’s ill-fated meeting. They were all now adults and were leading their own lives. Out of the blue, Nishika’s phone rings. It was from Dimple, the middle sibling and also the novel’s central character. Dimple had an emergency on her hand, something that she could not handle on her own, and required her siblings’ help. Now in her thirties, Dimple aspires to be a lifestyle influencer; ironically, she buys all the products that she promotes on her social media. Her troubles, however, would stem from her relationship with her boyfriend, percolating into an incident that would reunite the siblings.

It was without their choice but they were all drawn together in a moment of crisis. Some were reluctant but Nikisha’s authority drowned all protests. For once, they moved like a unit and overcame the crisis. They breathed a collective sigh of relief. This crisis, however, was just a catalyst for the rest of the novel. It was akin to a starting point as the siblings got more involved in each other’s lives. As fully grown adults, they started to see the value of blood relations. As the story moved forward, they got to know each other better. Carty-Williams weaves an evocative tapestry that captures the intricacies of family dynamics, with an emphasis on the adverse impact of Cyril’s detachment from his children.

“Whenever I see trains, I like to think about how many different lives are inside the carriage. Every person in that carriage is someone different, going somewhere different. I think the same thing about tower blocks. Behind every light is a life. And there are so many lives different to mine. Helps to remind me not to always be so in my head about myself.”

~ Candice Carty-Williams, People Person

The contrast between the siblings further enriched the novel’s tapestry, with each adding his or her own flavor to the story. Nikisha was practical and always willing to lend a hand to her siblings in times of crisis. She was also a tender loving mother who saw safeguarding her family as her primary responsibility. She can also get bossy. She is the antithesis of Dimple who can be self-centered but lacks self-confidence. She was also the most sensitive. Danny, on the other hand, was a gym buff while Prynce, the youngest, was slowly becoming a ladies’ man like their father. Lizzie, born just three weeks apart from Dimple, was the most uptight of the siblings. A medical student, she did not want to involve herself with her siblings.

The diverse personalities and characteristics of the siblings make for an interesting read. We learn about what they value the most and the lengths that they are willing to go to protect them. We also learn about their struggles, with each layer of their tough exteriors unpeeled as the story moves forward. Lizzie was in a stable lesbian relationship that she wanted to protect. Danny, on the other hand, had secrets from his past he wanted to conceal but move on from. Despite his shady past, he wanted to protect his family. Individual differences can lead to friction and the story had several of them. As the siblings fret and bicker, the story comes alive and the readers are reeled in.

For Dimple, her troubles stemmed from her need for companionship. However, she was the quintessence of the current generation. She was immersed in the virtual world, spending hours doomscrolling. In the world of social media, she found validation. She found comfort in the messages sent by random people praising her or providing constructive criticism and also in male validation. Dimple’s case captures how social media has shaped our world. Success and approval are anchored on the number of social media followers, likes, and views. We have become slaves of social media. Our online presence, however, is frail.

Dimple was yearning for a sense of belonging, hence, her reliance on the world of social media. Amidst all of her acts of bravado, Dimple also had no iota about who she really was. Finding your own voice in a family like the Penningtons – big, broken, and complex – could be a challenge; it should also be noted that they all have mixed heritage, with some even having Yoruban and Indian blood. Despite all of these, Dimple’s siblings, perplexing they might be, helped her get out of her high horse and ground her. Families, even the broken ones, are interesting ecosystems. Adding layers of humor and even drama are the half-siblings’ mothers. Bitter mothers fought against each other while some looked down on the others. Intrigue and tension wrap themselves up in the web haphazardly woven by Cyril.

“Years ago, I messaged you asking if you wanted to meet up. You ignored me. I messaged you again, because I really meant it. I really wanted to be your sister. I wanted to know if we were going through the same things, I wanted to know if you were feeling the same things I was feeling. I wanted to know if it was hard for you growing up feeling like you’d been left behind by someone who just couldn’t be bothered to be a parent. But you ignored me again.”

~ Candice Carty-Williams, People Person

The story, however, was anything but haphazard. Despite the contrasts and the friction between and among the half-siblings, the novel resonated with wit, humor, and even hopeful warmth. In the complicated story of the Pennington siblings, we see how they navigate uncharted territories as a unit despite having had no previous connections except for an ill-fated meeting designed by the patriarch. As their threads merge, we read about the pleasures of establishing connections in light of the trauma brought about by parental abandonment and constant disappointment. In her exploration of the complexities of families, Carty-Williams was unflinching. She captured both the positive and the negative. She addressed the elephant in the room, that families, while sources of strength, can also be toxic.

The abandonment of one parent can hurt a child. The absence of a parental figure adversely impacts a child’s view of the world, how they deal with challenges, and even their relationships with their peers. One of the novel’s highest accomplishments was its emotional realism which allowed readers to connect with the characters. The novel was bereft of a robust plot but Carty-Williams made up for it by crafting psychologically complex characters whose struggles ordinary people can relate to. There was also a sense of empathy towards their struggles which made them even more realistic and relatable. Despite this, it was lamentable how some of the siblings had lesser perspectives. It would have been an even more interesting reading journey had the readers heard more from Nikisha, Danny, and even Cyril.

In 2020, with her debut novel Queenie, Candice Carty-Williams became the first black female author to win British Book of the Year since its inception. With People Person, she consolidated her status as a writer to look forward to. People Person, however, was not faultless but it is ultimately a heartwarming and uplifting story about the intricacies of families. The novel was also about establishing new connections while overcoming the traumas of the past. With the Pennington siblings as vessels, Candice Carty-Williams explored a plethora of timely and seminal subjects, such as the frailties of our online lives, identity, and sexuality. Paternal love may be elusive for the siblings but their presence in each other’s lives is more than rewarding. And yes, a second “people person” – someone who has a keen understanding of those around her/him – developed as the story progressed.

“Because that’s what he does. That’s what he did to me, for a long, long time. Before and even after you were born, he’d pop in and out of my life. He’d come back with the excuses, which I believed because I loved him too much to think he’d lie to me. Then he’d stay around for a week, maybe two. He’d look after me, he’d tell me how he’d changed, and then he’d ask for a bit of money to tide him over. I’d give it to him, then he’d go again.”

~ Candice Carty-Williams, People Person
Book Specs

Author: Candice Carty-Williams
Publisher: Trapeze
Publishing Date: April 28, 2022
No. of Pages: 343
Genre: Literary

Synopsis

IF YOU COULD CHOOSE YOUR FAMILY…

YOU WOULDN’T CHOOSE THE PENNINGTONS.

Dimple Pennington knew of her half siblings, but she didn’t really know them. Five people who don’t have anything in common except for faint memories of being driven through Brixton in their dad’s gold jeep, and some pretty complex abandonment issues.

Dimple has bigger things to think about. She’s thirty, and her life isn’t really going anywhere. An aspiring lifestyle influencer with a terrible and wayward boyfriend, Dimple’s life has shrunk to the size of a phone screen. And despite a small but loyal following, she’s never felt more alone.

That is, until a catastrophic event brings her half siblings Nikisha, Danny, Lizzie and Prynce crashing back into her life. And when they’re all forced to reconnect with Cyril Pennington, the absent father they never really knew, things get even more complicated.

About the Author

Candice Carty-Williams was born on July 21, 1989, in Westminster, London, United Kingdom to a mother of Jamaican-Indian heritage and a father of Jamaican origin. She grew up in various neighborhoods in South London. She studied for a degree in communication and media studies at the University of Sussex. Post-university, Carty-Williams worked in the publishing industry. She worked on marketing literary fiction, non-fiction, and graphic novels.

She also previously worked as the books columnist for Guardian Review. Her early writings appeared in the Guardian, i-D, Vogue, the Face, Sunday Times, BEAT Magazine, and Black Ballad, among others. In 2019, she published her debut novel, Queenie. It was a critical success, earning Carty-Williams several positive feedback. It earned Carty-Williams the 2020 British Book Awards Book of the Year Award, making her the first black woman to achieve the feat. She also wrote the young adult novella Empress and Aniya. In 2022, she published her sophomore novel, People Person. In 2016, she created and launched the Guardian and 4th Estate Short Sotyr Prize for under-represented writers, the first inclusive initiative of its kind in book publishing.