The Parking Lot Attendant by Nafkote Tamirat is one of those books that sticks with you long after you’ve finished it. The unnamed narrator, a teenage girl caught between two worlds, tells a story that’s equal parts mystery and coming-of-age, with a quiet intensity that drew me in. Her complicated relationship with Ayale, the charismatic yet enigmatic parking lot attendant, is at the heart of this novel, and it had me thinking about how much influence people can have on our lives—sometimes for better, sometimes for worse. What really resonated with me was the tension between belonging and isolation, especially as the narrator grapples with identity, loyalty, and the power dynamics at play. It’s a story that feels both personal and political, and Tamirat’s writing has this way of making you question who to trust, while also exploring the choices we make when we’re desperate for connection.

I so wanted to like this book. This book was different. Takes a look at a family that immigrated from Ethopia, which the first part of the book concentrates on. The second part of the book focuses on them in Boston. This book is abou family and friendship. It was an ok read, Thanks to NetGalley, the author and the publisher for the ARC of this book. Although I received the book in this manner, it did not affect my opinion of this book nor my review.

When you picture what someone from Boston is like, you might think of someone who drops their “r’s” to “ah’s,” someone who’s passionate about the Red Sox and the Patriots, or someone who embodies the courage and compassion that makes them “Boston Strong.” You probably also think of someone who is white. Media lets us root for working-class Matt Damon in Good Will Hunting and sympathize the oppressed Offred in The Handmaid’s Tale, but we don’t often get that same chance with black protagonists. The novel The Parking Lot Attendant by Nafkote Tamirat features an unnamed protagonist who is a first-generation Ethiopian-American. She and her father have always skated the outskirts of Boston’s Ethiopian community, but by age 15, she wants to become more fully immersed in it. Ironically, by trying to find her place in her community, she ends up on an enigmatic island, as excluded as ever.

The novel opens at the end of the story to provide a taste of the unnamed tropical island of B—, where the narrator is treated as a pariah amongst the island’s 20 inhabitants. They suspect she betrayed a man named Ayale, but Tamirat cleverly obfuscates how the narrator arrived under these circumstances. Tamirat teases out just enough details to pique the reader’s interest before jumping back a year or so previously to contrast the strangeness of the island with the familiarity of a small city like Boston. The narrator was born in Fall River and grows up amongst Boston landmarks like Copley Square, the Coolidge Corner Theatre, and the South Street Diner. Other Ethiopian-Americans recognize her on the street as her father’s daughter, but she’s confused about how they could know that when she and her father rarely socialize with anyone else.

For reasons that aren’t satisfactorily explained, the narrator does not have friends who are her own age, so she is eager to befriend the group of Ethiopian-Americans who she always sees hanging out in a parking lot. At the center of this group is Ayale, the titular parking lot attendant, whom the reader can ascertain will later become the leader of B—. He’s one of the only adults in her life who treats her as a capable equal. He debates her on topics ranging from literature, to movies, to philosophy, to politics, but he also makes sure she finishes her homework and reads The Boston Globe. Ayale is filling a paternal void for her disengaged father, so the narrator is stubbornly obtuse concerning her vulnerability when she befriends this middle-aged man. In this regard, Tamirat successfully captures the self-assuredness of a teenager. The narrator even says, “I recognize that some might meet Ayale and not get swept up in his spell, might find him unkempt and horrible, especially in light of what happened later, but he remains the greatest man I’ll ever know, and unlike some, I’m not ashamed to say it.” Personally, I failed to see the charisma in Ayale that the narrator is so enamored by.
Tamirat strikes an intriguing balance of showcasing the Ethiopian-American experience in Boston while simultaneously turning one of the main characters into an antagonist, but the ending feels a little flat despite the dangerous stakes. Ayale is painted as the Whitey Bulger of the Ethiopian community, a threatening outlier who takes cares of his community, and the narrator is willfully ignorant of the incriminating happenings around her. When the plot is coming to a head, the police ask the narrator, “doesn’t it strike you as slightly weird that there are so many Ethiopians working there, hanging out there, presumably for the same reason, to be a part of the community?” The narrator responds, “Why weird? Italians own everything in the North End and no one seems to care.” This would normally be a salient point to make to an officer who had internalized prejudices, but that moment is undercut by the cryptic statements throughout the book that confirm Ayale’s wrongdoings. If we had more positive representations of black communities in Boston in the real world, perhaps real and fictional police officers would not jump to the conclusion that black friends hanging out in parking lots must be a gang. Unfortunately, the group in this novel are not as innocent as the narrator hopes they are, which she finds out the hard way as her path accelerates to the island of B—.

The plot felt as though it would surely approach the edge of a cliff, but in reality, the plot just ends up scaling a hill that has been clearly laid out for the reader. What initially appears to be mystery thriller is really a literary examination of the malleability of a young woman’s identity. Nonetheless, the book is still an interesting journey. This is a strong debut novel and Tamirat’s potential as a writer is a mountain yet climbed.

I couldn't get though this book enough to find out what the heck happens but it was certainly weird. It was sort of a tale about immigrants but also about cults? Not for me.

The Parking Lot Attendant has been getting a lot of buzz in critics circles. The novel begins with the unnamed young teenager at the center of the novel living as a refugee with her father on a tropical island. All is not well on the island. The refugees appear to be waiting for transfer to Africa and the young woman is not looked upon favorably by her fellow refugees. The majority of the novel takes us through the events that led up to the woman and her Ethiopian-born father’s current situation.

The young woman at the center of the novel is abandoned by her mother and raised by her father who reappears in her life after 6 years absence. The majority of the novel is set in Boston and details the coming-of-age of the young protagonist who becomes enthralled by an older man, Ayale, who works as a parking attendant in Boston.

I enjoyed parts of this book while other parts left me feeling flat. The writing was excellent and I’m convinced that we’ll be seeing a lot more of this author. The beginning of the book drew me in and I felt invested in the life and story of the protagonist. The writing style was appealing with a mix of humor and intelligence that I appreciated. As someone who lives in the Boston area, I found the descriptions to be authentic and engaging.

The most compelling aspect of the book, for me was the developing relationship between the young woman and the mysterious and charismatic Ayale. These sections felt genuine and were engaging. Ayale was a compelling character and I wanted to know more about his motivations and life experiences. However, at a point, the plot veered into an almost magical, fantastical direction (as they moved onto the island) and I lost interest. It was almost as if I was reading two different books and I found myself confused and lost — like a lot of the symbolism/metaphorical pieces were going over my head. I felt like there were a lot of loose threads, inconsistencies, and over-the-top plot lines for my tastes.

The characters in the book were mostly Ethiopian (first or second generation) which appealed to me when reading the synopsis since I figured that there would be a strong focus on the immigrant experience in America. That wasn’t really the case for this book which was focused more on the coming-of-age experiences of the protagonist than it was on any in-depth cultural exploration or analysis.

I ended up giving this book 3 stars because I do think the writing was very strong and I really enjoyed the first half of the book. While second half went off the rails for me, I think the author is clearly a talented writer and is someone who will be worth watching. I think the book will appeal to readers who enjoy coming-of-age stories and stories that stretch the boundaries of the imagination.

Full review on the blog:
https://thereadersroom.org/2018/05/16/the-parking-lot-attendant-by-nafkote-tamara/

There were definitely things to like about this story of a young girl who becomes enamored with a mysterious man who works as a parking attendant. I loved the characters (even though they were hard to like as people) because of their over-the-top qualities. However, I was disappointed in the ending - it seemed like all of the excitement happened in the very last quarter of the book, and there was very little resolution. I can see this writer's work improving in the future if the writing becomes more cohesive.

A fantastic little novel! The beginning was cryptic and more than a little confusing, with an unnamed narrator and her unnamed father on an unnamed island. As we move backwards in time to understand the narrator's life in Boston, meet her mother, learn more about her relationship with her father, and finally know Ayale, the story unfolds... but only to a point. Ayale is mysterious, and her interactions with him are vaguely troubling, if only because the reasons/motive/attraction are unclear. The last 50 pages of the story are frenetic, revealing so many of the "whys", and the end of the book is shocking and unexpected. Looking at the book as a whole is like regarding a completed jigsaw puzzle on a table: a mixture of relief and satisfaction.

I had a hard time getting through this one - it's a little too esoteric for me.
The protagonist of this coming of age story about an Ethiopian girl seems so remote, distant, unconnected with anyone or anything - her narrative was like watching a documentary with subtitles on a tv with poor reception.
I'm sure it is a lot deeper than what I'm reading into it, but at the end, I was just slogging along just to finish it.

Amazing read. Fast paced, sensitive writing. I am recommending this to everyone looking for a great book.

A young Ethiopian-American girl befriends an older man who works in a parking lot. At the parking lot she makes extra money delivering packages and gets involved in the murky underworld of Boston's Ethiopian community, before escaping with her father to a Utopian community run by the parking lot attendant.

Thank you to NegGalley and the publisher for a chance to read and review this book. I think that the premise was good but the way that story was told just meandered for me. I did not finish this one.

My Thoughts: I would have really liked this book had I stopped reading at about the 80% mark. At that point the book just went off the rails for me, but let’s begin with the good. The Parking Lot Attendant is a coming-of-age story told by its teenage Ethiopian protagonist. She’s had a rough life, living for her first six years with only her mother and since then only with her father. The father-daughter relationship shines in Tamirat’s debut. He is a quiet, secretive man who never planned to have the responsibilities of fatherhood, and his daughter (never named) feels the distance that comes with that.

“He wouldn’t let me out alone because as much as he wished he could put me to sleep for specific hours of the day, he could have never lived with the guilt of something happening to me. We are similar in this way: by caring too much about what might happen in the future, we end up caring not enough in the present, too worn out to maintain that kind of attention, no matter how genuine.”

The voice with which this young woman reflected on her story was honest and clear. I particularly liked that her telling was from a point in the future, where she was able to reflect on the events that led to her and her father being exiled from their lives. The other man in the narrator’s life was Ayale, the parking lot attendant, and a quiet leader in the Boston Ethiopian community. The narrator’s growing admiration for this man led her down roads that may not have always been legal, and yet she found it almost impossible to say no. Ayale’s part of the story grew tedious and more and more difficult for me to believe. When the story returned to the unnamed island where it began and the utopian community being formed there, my tenuous hold on belief was completely severed. Unfortunately, the book’s ending overshadowed all that was good in the rest of Tamirat’s story. Still, I truly enjoyed her writing and would happily read her future novels. Grade: C+

Note: I received a copy of this book from the Henry Holt & Co. (via NetGalley) in exchange for my honest thoughts.

The Parking Lot Attendant was a difficult read for me. I was confused at the beginning and had trouble sorting out relationships. The author tells an important story of a young Ethiopian girl. She explores the world of the Ethiopians living in the Boston area, and also fucuses on the power and control one person can have over others. The ideas and writing are good, but the book as a whole for me was unfulfilling.

This is a unique book! I really enjoyed the author’s writing and the time spent while we were following the characters in Boston. A lot of the time I was unsure what was going on including in the beginning when they were on the island. B______ . The ending surprised me as well. I’m still unsure what I think of this book, but I guess that is a good thing when you are still thinking about things days after you’ve read it?!

I feel like the description that netgalley provided was intriguing enough for me to request the book. Unfortunately I did not enjoy this read. It was a little bit of a struggle for me to get through. I didn’t understand the point. I think this book could speak to many others. But for me it just didn’t meet the mark for my personal reading tastes. I do not know what I was expecting. I found the character Ayale intriguing and confusing all at the same time. His thought process and the way he spoke to our protagonist was so different. But I did find it a little uncomfortable the relationship between the two and how easily he molded her thinking.
Maybe I need to read more literary fiction in order to appreciate this read more.

DNF. Perhaps a real description of the Ethiopian immigrant experience of America. It was just too depressing to enjoy.

A rather odd book. I do like odd, but this was too jumbled for me. The narrator has no name, she and her father are on an Utopian-like island, awaiting to be accepted into this cult? commune? They are Ethiopian immigrants. This is the first part of the book and while I was a bit confused, I thought the writing was good. Then the middle part of the book takes a look at this same family back in Boston. This recounts how they ended up on this island (without a name). The third part of the book is really about the deep based friendship that the narrator and the parking lot attendant have. She works for him, runs errands for him. Too many questions for me, I had no idea what was going to happen, nor did I know what was happening at the time. This book was dubbed as a "coming-of-age" book, so you could see that Ayale, the sly hustler that he was, was engaging the girl in his schemes. The book kind of fell apart for me about the middle, when I had to re-read several parts to navigate my way to where I was. This is a debut book for author Nafkote Tamirat.
Thanks to Netgalley for an advanced copy of this book for an honest review.

This novel was fast-paced and entertaining. The book is centered around an Ethiopian-American immigrant family who live in Boston, where the fifteen year old daughter becomes friends with Ayale, a parking lot attendant, a man as old as her own father, who is viewed as both a savior and a murderer. The majority of the novel the daughter, our narrator, lives with her father, though I wish we knew more about the mother. She doesn't surface much until they end up on this unnamed island that is occupied by a rather vicious cult. To some degree, the novel is set up to have readers engaged in a murder mystery, wondering who is responsible for the murders, and is Ayale a saint or deviant. The plot is unique, the characters intriguing, and the ending is surprising.

I found this book difficult to get into. The leaps between styles and places and times weren’t coalescing and I opted not to finish. I’m also not sure why the place name is B—————-B in a modern novel.