Are you down with the brown? If you’re reading this, probably so. No need to query your convictions. They’re safe—not because this book will flatter them. It won’t. But you’ll find that whatever you think brown might signify in racial terms (mixed, or multiracial, or just plain not white) doesn’t apply to Manu Samriti Chander’s sense of what it means for “Romantic” writers. I’ll confess up front that I find the mincing around race—and class, too—frustrating. In the Caribbean context with which I’m most familiar, brown often conflates race and class, as in brown bourgeoisie. While Chander does little to challenge my presumption, after reading his book I realize he doesn’t mean that at all.
What he does mean I’ll tell you in a minute. But if you intend to read Brown Romantics, and I think you should, you must, I implore you: read the afterword first....
