Author: Uwem Akpan
Genre: Short Story Collection
Published: Say You're One of Them, 2008
Personal Rating: 3.5/5 (good)
(ss) Yearly Count: 47
The eldest daughter of a poor, homeless African family is relied upon to provide for the family. She is only 12-years-old. Her younger brother is the narrator.
This story depicts deplorable conditions that alone make one cringe, then there's the manner in which they survive that breaks one's heart. I hate it that it probably bares more truth than we would like to admit. The flow of the story was interrupted due to the language (foreign words here and there), and they caused me to lose the emotion. I still thought it was good, though - nothing special, but good.
I almost picked this up last night to read, but decided on another book instead. I am really looking forward to reading it, even as sad as I hear it is.
ReplyDeleteLiterary Feline ~ The next story in Say You're One of Them is a novella (~100 pages), and I didn't feel like reading a long one right now, so I picked up a William Gay collection. Have you read any or heard anything about his work? I'll come back to Akpan's book.
ReplyDeleteI've been seeing this one everywhere but I just can't decide if I should pick it up or not. I see you told Wendy the next one is about the length of a novella--is it a mix of stories?
ReplyDeleteTrish ~ There are 5 stories and 2 of them are approximately 150 pages! They are all supposedly on the gloomy side and very heart-wrenching. I wanted to read short stories right now, so I put it down for now. I may just skip the novellas, then go back to those at another time.
ReplyDeleteHave you heard of William Gay? That's the author of the collection I'm reading now - well, I've only read one so far. And, that one was not very uplifting either.
I haven't heard of William Gay. Honestly, not sure I could handle "not very uplifting" right now. I haven't been reading much of anything lately, but ick! Hope the stories pick up for you a bit.
ReplyDeleteTrish ~ Yeah, the not very uplifting part isn't all that great, but I am enjoying his writing style.
ReplyDelete