In her first full-length novel, “The Parking Lot Attendant,” Nafkote Tamirat plunges into the life of a Boston-born teenager with Ethiopian parents. This unnamed girl tells the story of her disjointed family and the events that left her longing for a steadfast, loving figure in her life. She tells of Ayale, a charismatic and extremely enigmatic parking-lot attendant, whose ostensibly mundane job is unusual considering his far-reaching influence. She tells the story of life on an unnamed island, the mysterious setting of both the beginning and end of the novel.
Over the course of 225 pages, the narrator slowly weaves these accounts together, culminating in questions that are slowly but all the more gratifyingly answered, barring some cliffhangers at the close of the novel.
The first-person point of view of the novel is colloquial enough for it to seem as if she, a 15-year-old girl, is the actual author. The unnamed narrator simply relays her life story to those who will listen, while staying eloquent enough for us to see the trademarks of a practiced writer (Tamirat) throughout the chapters. Some sentences are short and laden with expletives, whereas others are articulate and graceful. Overall, the descriptions are elegant, such as when the narrator describes the island’s sand as “white and, as far as it’s possible for sand to enjoy this quality, fluffy. There’s something seductive about it, especially when compared with the pebble-strewn gray-brown harshness of my childhood.” This immersive style of Tamirat’s writing is enthralling from the beginning to the end. […] CONTINUE READING
