Amina Gautier’s The Best That You Can Do (Soft Skull, 2024) is a powerful, multi-award-winning collection of short stories centered on characters from the Puerto Rican and African diaspora. The book has received numerous accolades, including the Midwest MLA Book Award, the Florida Book Awards Silver Medal, and the 2023 Soft Skull-Kimbilio Publishing Prize. It was also longlisted for the Joyce Carol Oates Prize and The Story Prize. Many of the stories are interconnected, with characters reappearing across multiple narratives. As a result, some sections read almost like novellas, offering different viewpoints that deepen the reader’s understanding.
Quarter Rican
The first section, Quarter Rican, follows multiple generations of a family fractured when the father abandons his wife and children in New York to return to Puerto Rico. The mother, unfamiliar with Puerto Rican culture, sends her children to visit him during the summers so they can connect with their heritage:
“She snaps our suitcase closed and tells us what it’s like to compete with an island, to love a man with oceans in his eyes and horizons in his heart. She says, ‘You just can’t win.’”
Later, the perspective shifts to the grandchildren, who learn about their culture through television and music. They misinterpret the lyrics of José Feliciano’s Feliz Navidad, humorously singing: “Felice la di da . . . Police la di da . . .”
The Best That You Can Do
This section explores male-female relationships, often highlighting how men fail to meet the expectations set in early romance or marriage. One man ends a relationship after his girlfriend offers to split a restaurant check, accusing her of emasculating him. In another story, a spiteful ex-boyfriend gives away his former lover’s painting to a door-to-door salesman rather than return it to her.
A standout story, “Howl,” follows a professional woman who realizes that her fiancé expects her to handle all childcare responsibilities once they have children. She confides in her mother: “He saw me more as womb than woman.” She realizes “How [she’d] gone into it for love and nearly settled for erasure. How for this there were no words and only howling would do.” This character is admirable in not settling for less than she deserves.
In “Don’t Mention It,” a wife challenges her husband’s complaints about feeling unappreciated by ceasing all the tasks he never thanks her for—everything from preparing meals to picking up their daughter. He quickly understands her point.
Breathe
This powerful section addresses police violence and the systemic racism that gave rise to the Black Lives Matter movement. In one story, a narrator in Lisbon reflects on the state of the U.S.:
“Anything is better than the world back at home, where Black churches were being burned like kindling, and Black people were being tackled, slammed, asphyxiated, arrested, and killed for selling loose cigarettes, for failing to signal a lane change when driving, for praying, for swimming, for walking, for breathing.”
Other stories in this section include a bar that serves drinks made of “white girl tears on tap” and a family reunion where attendees take turns hitting a “Karen” piñata. In another story, a Black mother takes her child to a Nat Turner statue and calls him a hero for fighting to free enslaved people. A White woman overhears and is outraged, calling Turner a murderer. The mother doesn’t back down:
“Imagine if this was a statue of a slaveholder instead—Robert E. Lee or Jefferson Davis. Imagine if every time you came here, you had to come face-to-face with someone who stood for enslaving your people. Imagine the pain you would feel . . .”
Caretaking
The final section, Caretaking, shifts perspectives among various characters. Some stories are narrated by Mrs. McAllister, an elderly Black woman who has had a stroke. She refers to the young woman who cares for her simply as “the housegirl.” A niece reveals that the caretaker’s name is Winsome. When Winsome becomes the narrator, we learn she sneaks her boyfriend into the house for secret rendezvous. Later, a different story reveals that Mrs. McAllister knows about the boyfriend but never confronts Winsome. One story even provides the perspective of a boy who grew up in the neighborhood. The shifting viewpoints enlarge readers’ understanding of the characters.
Conclusion
The beautifully crafted stories in The Best That You Can Do feature strong, multifaceted characters navigating challenges shaped by race, gender, and age. They demand respect and fight to maintain their dignity despite the obstacles life throws at them.
About the Author
Amina Gautier. Photo credit: Dayo Nicole Mitchell
Amina Gautier is the author of four short story collections: At-Risk, Now We Will Be Happy, The Loss of All Lost Things, and The Best That You Can Do. She has received numerous honors, including the Blackwell Prize, the Chicago Public Library Foundation’s 21st Century Award, the International Latino Book Award, the Flannery O’Connor Award, and the Phillis Wheatley Award in Fiction. In recognition of her body of work, she was awarded the PEN/Malamud Award for Excellence in the Short Story.
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