A unique and engaging set of tales.
Characters navigate hidden aspects of themselves in this short story collection.
In “The Village,” a woman named Anne cares for two children while her husband, Ken, a lawyer, is at work; he routinely arrives home late. Tewogbade, the author of Red Was the Midnight (2018), focuses on the pathos of Anne’s daily life and makes it the fulcrum on which the story turns. When Anne meets with other women in her community, she views the gatherings as just “part of her sluggish routine.” Ultimately, the author shows readers how Anne’s keen awareness of her situation forces her to confront her husband as well as herself. “Nose Trouble” deals with racism and ageism in the workplace; Camille, a veteran human resources manager, passed over for a promotion in favor of a “perky blonde” fresh out of college, befriends Selena, a new employee and the only other Black person in their department. Initially, the women commiserate at lunch over the unspoken dress code policy that Black people face on the job; however, after Selena receives a promotion, Tewogbade effectively reveals the effects of self-hatred. “A Loving Squeeze” foregrounds domestic abuse within the African diaspora. In it, American Olivia begins an affair with Alhaji, a married Nigerian government official whom her mother derides as a “slick African”; she soon finds herself locked in an apartment and physically assaulted. The title story focuses on the Duplantiers from Louisiana, new arrivals in a gated community who carry the stigma of being unwanted “Katrina people”—refugees from the 2005 hurricane disaster. By meeting with them, the narrator confronts her own bigotry and fears about her place in the community. Tewogbade deftly handles this delicate topic; for example, at one point, the narrator says that she would be “dealt with” if she took “so much as a biscuit” from her new neighbors, who run a restaurant out of their home. Once again, the author skillfully captures the paradoxes surrounding “the question of belonging [that] begs for an answer.”
A unique and engaging set of tales.Pub Date: May 4, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-73221-572-6
Page Count: 183
Publisher: Kaduna River Press
Review Posted Online: July 9, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A deep and grimly whimsical exploration of what it means to be a son, a father, and an artist.
A retelling of Pinocchio from Geppetto's point of view.
The novel purports to be the memoirs of Geppetto, a carpenter from the town of Collodi, written in the belly of a vast fish that has swallowed him. Fortunately for Geppetto, the fish has also engulfed a ship, and its supplies—fresh water, candles, hardtack, captain’s logbook, ink—are what keep the Swallowed Man going. (Collodi is, of course, the name of the author of the original Pinocchio.) A misfit whose loneliness is equaled only by his drive to make art, Geppetto scours his surroundings for supplies, crafting sculptures out of pieces of the ship’s wood, softened hardtack, mussel shells, and his own hair, half hoping and half fearing to create a companion once again that will come to life. He befriends a crab that lives all too briefly in his beard, then mourns when “she” dies. Alone in the dark, he broods over his past, reflecting on his strained relationship with his father and his harsh treatment of his own “son”—Pinocchio, the wooden puppet that somehow came to life. In true Carey fashion, the author illustrates the novel with his own images of his protagonist’s art: sketches of Pinocchio, of woodworking tools, of the women Geppetto loved; photos of driftwood, of tintypes, of a sculpted self-portrait with seaweed hair. For all its humor, the novel is dark and claustrophobic, and its true subject is the responsibilities of creators. Remembering the first time he heard of the sea monster that was to swallow him, Geppetto wonders if the monster is somehow connected to Pinocchio: “The unnatural child had so thrown the world off-balance that it must be righted at any cost, and perhaps the only thing with the power to right it was a gigantic sea monster, born—I began to suppose this—just after I cracked the world by making a wooden person.” Later, contemplating his self-portrait bust, Geppetto asks, “Monster of the deep. Am I, then, the monster? Do I nightmare myself?”
A deep and grimly whimsical exploration of what it means to be a son, a father, and an artist.Pub Date: Jan. 26, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-593-18887-3
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Riverhead
Review Posted Online: Sept. 29, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2020
A touching portrait of courage and friendship.
A lifetime of friendship endures many upheavals.
Ellie and Homa, two young girls growing up in Tehran, meet at school in the early 1950s. Though their families are very different, they become close friends. After the death of Ellie’s father, she and her difficult mother must adapt to their reduced circumstances. Homa’s more warm and loving family lives a more financially constrained life, and her father, a communist, is politically active—to his own detriment and that of his family’s welfare. When Ellie’s mother remarries and she and Ellie relocate to a more exclusive part of the city, the girls become separated. They reunite years later when Homa is admitted to Ellie’s elite high school. Now a political firebrand with aspirations to become a judge and improve the rights of women in her factionalized homeland, Homa works toward scholastic success and begins practicing political activism. Ellie follows a course, plotted originally by her mother, toward marriage. The tortuous path of the girls’ adult friendship over the following decades is played out against regime change, political persecution, and devastating loss. Ellie’s well-intentioned but naïve approach stands in stark contrast to Homa’s commitment to human rights, particularly for women, and her willingness to risk personal safety to secure those rights. As narrated by Ellie, the girls’ story incorporates frequent references to Iranian food, customs, and beliefs common in the years of tumult and reforms accompanying the Iranian Revolution. Themes of jealousy—even in close friendships—and the role of the shir zan, the courageous “lion women” of Iran who effect change, recur through the narrative. The heartaches associated with emigration are explored along with issues of personal sacrifice for the sake of the greater good (no matter how remote it may seem).
A touching portrait of courage and friendship.Pub Date: July 2, 2024
ISBN: 9781668036587
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Gallery Books/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: April 19, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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