DEI? What's That? Book Review of The Grand Scheme of Things

 

The Grand Scheme of Things by Warona Jay

Gratitude

Thank you GoodReads and Atria for the review copy of The Grand Scheme of Things by Warona Jay, which will be on sale February 25, 2025.

Description

In The Grand Scheme of Things, Naledi, or Eddie as she commonly goes by, has been sending out her play with no bites. Her college mates have all made progress getting their work on stage and Naledi thinks that her play is getting held up by racism--readers see her non-Anglo Saxon name on the cover page and don’t get much further. Her play is being shut out because she is a Black woman, the daughter of Batswana immigrants, and this in the time of Brexit and fear across England.

Tired and frustrated, Eddie comes up with a plan to prove that it is prejudice that is preventing her play from garnering the attention it deserves--with the help of Hugo, that is.

Hugo is a blue blood, White and as privileged as can be. His father is a prominent attorney and since graduating from college, Hugo lives in one of his properties, where he is meant to be getting started on his own law career. But Hugo is not interested in the law, so when Eddie suggests a scheme to expose the prejudice in the theater industry, Hugo is eager to be of service.

The Grand Scheme of Things is told in sections that alternate between Eddie’s first-person narration and Hugo’s. As the play leaves their hands and becomes a thing of the world, so too does the plot line seem to no longer be theirs and certainly not Eddie’s. Eddie and Hugo’s relationship status also brings further complications, as the outside world tries to decipher the connection between them.

While The Grand Scheme of Things is set in Great Britain, all the markers of prejudice could just as easily exist in the United States. With the current ridiculousness of the outlawing of DEI, I could see such a plan to highlight structural racism being implemented. For reference, the Tony Award for Best Play has not gone to a woman in the past ten years, let alone a woman of Color. Racism and sexism are alive and well in the United States theater industry.

 

Would I Teach This Book?

Would I teach The Grand Scheme of Things? The Grand Scheme of Things is an intriguing novel that questions how willing we are to take on the prejudice around us and challenge structural racism. I would hope that many would be moved by Eddie’s story, but I wonder how many are so resistant to seeing the existence of racism and would rather suggest that truly we live in a meritocracy and that it is not prejudice that keeps some away from success but merit--that efforts of inclusion mean that less worthy candidates are chosen. Yes, I would teach this book, and yes I would want to know what students make of it.


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