Vulnerability is healing: Open Water by Caleb Azumah Nelson

Recently, I read a novel titled Open Water by Caleb Azumah Nelson. He is a British Ghanaian and Open Water is his first novel. Open Water is a novel set in London talking about black love and the struggles of a black man in London.

Open Water was a different book for me. It was like entering a new city that speaks a different language from you. I found the novel refreshing and educative. It was a new adventure in my reading which I found beautiful. The reason for this feeling was first the writing style. The writing style of the novel was in the second person which I consider not very easy to write and also, I have never read a book in the second person; this is why I found it to be different. Also, the buildup of the story, wow, I loved it. The writing and the storytelling were the peaks for me.

This novel felt foreign and this was so because I have not explored a lot of male authors and this was the first author I encountered that is a black man that wrote about love. The genre of romance is dominated by women. It has been a concept that loving is a woman’s thing. How can the attachment of emotions, vulnerability, and love be a woman thing when these feelings are known to both genders? So, reading a novel by a black man, telling a story about love from a male perspective was refreshing. I would call it the genesis of a revolution for the culture.

As I said before, the novel Open Water was educative and relates to the blog title. I have no plans to get in-depth into the story because I might end up dropping some spoilers or giving my opinion about the story itself and I’m not ready to do that because I read it recently. Well, what stood out for me as something to learn from this novel was vulnerability. This is quite a common word when talking about relationships. I consider vulnerability to be the most beautiful thing yet the scariest thing. Reading Open Water made me realize the need for vulnerability in relationships and this does not extend to only romantic relationships but also in friendships. The need to speak and express what’s on your inside, what might probably be eating you up.

The main male character of Open Water was a lesson as a person. My heart ached for him. His character expressed how grief and pain had held him back; held him back from loving freely. His pain became a block to his freedom, his environment was also well-draining him.

I thought that vulnerability could happen when you meet a safe space but vulnerability happens when you choose to be vulnerable. I wonder if only the main character had chosen to be vulnerable; if only he could see vulnerability as the first ticket to freedom. Open Water thought me the power of vulnerability, it thought me that expressing can save the heart. As much as it is scary, it is healing.

The world today has revealed vulnerability to be a weakness when it is a strength. A world where vulnerability is seen as weakness breeds people who are suffocating.

Pointing this to love; Love needs vulnerability, openness, and communication to make a relationship strong. The main characters of Open Water showed that vulnerability was the answer to their relationship. When the vulnerability is invisible, it then leads to what if I or maybe I would have.