On Narrative and Becoming

On Narrative and Becoming is both an intimate and a political act, an autobiographical genre-blending novel that traces one woman's journey across decades, continents, and interior landscapes. With emotional precision and psychological depth, Kismatali invites readers to witness the making of a self, and the courage required to speak where silence once lived.

Arriving in Toronto in 1968 at age 20, Kismatali began the long process of her becoming, through study, work, motherhood, and persistent negotiation of identity in a new land. Her writing confronts the double silencing of Asian-Caribbean women, first within the broader discourse, and again within patriarchal literary traditions that have rendered them one-dimensional.

"At thirteen, becoming highly educated was not within the realm of possibilities for me or my siblings. With parents who believed that we were born to a certain station in life, and should just accept it and wear it like a skin unquestioned and unchanging. It left no room for dreams of a better life.

"I have never been off the tiny island of Trinidad where I was born. My life there was small in what I was allowed to think, voice, or experience. Tucked into the folds of extreme poverty, rigid family rules, social customs, and the rhythm of a life that saw little change. What I am doing now seems impossible. I know no one in this huge new world, and no one knows me. But I had to come."