Book #218 of 2019:
The Deep by Rivers Solomon with Daveed Diggs, William Hutson, and Jonathan Snipes
There’s a lot going on with this novella, and although I think its ambition surpasses its short length, it contains a worthwhile consideration of generational trauma as a source of both suffering and strength. Author Rivers Solomon has taken a 5-minute song by the rap group clipping. (whose members are credited as co-authors here, although Solomon appears to have done all the writing themself) and remixed and expanded its central idea of mermaids descended from pregnant Africans thrown overboard slave ships into a society that channels its memories into a single vessel a la The Giver. In Solomon’s version, these creatures are also hermaphroditic yet gendered, and the heroine has a sweet love story with a human woman to whom she openly relates such matters.
Ultimately the project feels heavily fractured, and I definitely like some parts better than others or their sum total. But it’s artistic and experimental and weird, and I do feel we need more literary works pushing boundaries like this. I’m looking forward to hearing which of the added elements from this book make it into clipping.’s upcoming EP of the same name.
★★★★☆
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