The Chair Carrier
The Chair Carrier, by Yusuf Idris, is an Arabic short story about a man who encounters another man on the street carrying an extremely large, heavy chair. The man refuses to stop carrying the chair because nobody of any importance has authorized him to do so. This causes a great deal of frustration and confusion for the main character/narrator. I felt this story was well written and that the author did a good job of keeping the reader in suspense. For the first part of the story the narrator made a big deal about the chair which kept me interested because I actually wanted to find out what the deal was with the chair. I found this story to be interesting and more entertaining than the African short stories.
Papa, Snake & I
Papa, Snake & I, by BL Honwana, is a south African story about a family who lives on what seems to be a farm of some type. They are losing chickens to a hungry snake and the father decides to kill it. Before it is killed, the snake bites and kills their neighbor's dog. This incident causes a feud between the father and the neighbor. I thought this story was more entertaining and more well-written than most of the stories in the book. It was a little long but it kept my attention which was a refreshing change from the other stories.
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
The Betrayal
The Betrayal, by Ahmed Essop, is a south African story about a political figure named Dr. Kamal. He is the head of a political organization that is threatened by the emergence of a new organization. One evening Dr. Kamal and his supporters show up at a meeting held by the rival political organization and begin to argue with them. Shortly thereafter violence erupts and Dr. Kamal flees the scene rather than help support the people that supported him. It is quite obvious why the author named this story "The Betrayal." It took Dr. Kamal no time at all to abandon and betray those that helped him for so long. The story never told what happened to Dr. Kamal after he fled the scene but I personally hope that it all caught back up to him.
Protista
Protista, by Dambudzo Marechera, is an African story about a man who has gone insane. He has strange dreams and claims to be tormented by things called "Menfish." The story goes on to tell about his experiences with insanity. I felt this story made no sense and ended up doing nothing for the reader. Protista was well written but I felt it had no entertainment value whatsoever.
The Betrayal, by Ahmed Essop, is a south African story about a political figure named Dr. Kamal. He is the head of a political organization that is threatened by the emergence of a new organization. One evening Dr. Kamal and his supporters show up at a meeting held by the rival political organization and begin to argue with them. Shortly thereafter violence erupts and Dr. Kamal flees the scene rather than help support the people that supported him. It is quite obvious why the author named this story "The Betrayal." It took Dr. Kamal no time at all to abandon and betray those that helped him for so long. The story never told what happened to Dr. Kamal after he fled the scene but I personally hope that it all caught back up to him.
Protista
Protista, by Dambudzo Marechera, is an African story about a man who has gone insane. He has strange dreams and claims to be tormented by things called "Menfish." The story goes on to tell about his experiences with insanity. I felt this story made no sense and ended up doing nothing for the reader. Protista was well written but I felt it had no entertainment value whatsoever.
The Bridegroom
The Bridegroom, by Nadine Gordimer, is a south African story about a man. The title of this story leads the reader to believe it will be about a wedding, but it is not at all like that. The story mentions a wedding in the beginning but soon transitions to his son's cooking skills. Later it changes settings again to talk about being in a camp of some type. A few people play music with kaffir leaves and soon others join in. This was an interesting story and a bit of a challange to read because there were so many transitions with no explanations as to why.
The Bridegroom, by Nadine Gordimer, is a south African story about a man. The title of this story leads the reader to believe it will be about a wedding, but it is not at all like that. The story mentions a wedding in the beginning but soon transitions to his son's cooking skills. Later it changes settings again to talk about being in a camp of some type. A few people play music with kaffir leaves and soon others join in. This was an interesting story and a bit of a challange to read because there were so many transitions with no explanations as to why.
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
African Short Stories 2
Minutes of Glory
Minutes of Glory, by Ngugiwa Thiong'o is an east African story about a plain looking barmaid in search of attention and acceptance. Driven by vanity, she steals money from one of her customers and uses it to buy new clothes, shoes, make-up, etc. She later returns to the bar and gets exactly what she was in search of, attention and acceptance from other males. Shortly thereafter the victimized customer has her arrested and put in jail which in turn makes him an instant hero. He is immediately showered with the attention and acceptance the girl craved for so long, which is what makes this story so ironic. Both the barmaid and customer are plain, boring people who are frequently ignored by their peers. The irony is, as I stated above, that the barmaid took drastic measures to achieve her goals only to have them stripped away and given to the man who did nothing to work for them.
I felt this story was too long and drawn out from the beginning. There was far too much useless information given to the reader. The conclusion was interesting and tied the story off quite well.
The Green Leaves
The Green Leaves, by Grace Ogot is a story about three cattle thieves who are chased through the night by a group of villagers. Two thieves escape, one is soon captured and murdered by the mob of angry vigilantes. They made the mistake of assuming the man would die and covered him with leaves, then left him for dead. One villager later came back to pick the dead thief's pockets but was murdered by the thief in the process. This story teaches two lessons: 1.) Never make assumptions about important issues. 2.) Never make a choice fueled by greed. The unfortunate villager in this story made both mistakes at the same time, which ultimately led to his demise.
The Spider's Web
The Spider's Web, by Leonard Kibera, is an African story about a man who seems to be a slave. I felt it was hard to figure out exactly what this story was about. It had no logical flow to the series of events; everything was random at best. My best guess at the moral lesson of the story is that one should never give up on anything, even the darkest situations can be overcome. This story was poorly constructed and very confusing.
An Incident in the Ghobashi Household
An Incident in the Ghobashi Household, by Alifa Rifaat, is a north African story about a girl who is pregnant with an illegitimate son. She tries to hide it for some time but her mother inevitably finds out. They decide the best course of action is to have the girl run away to Cairo so her father doesn't find out about the pregnancy. I think this story is an example of how intolerance can, in certain situations, be a terrible burden. Family members should be there to support each other no matter what. It should never be the case that someone has to runaway from home to keep another family member from becoming upset. Honesty and support are two major characteristics in a functional family. Without them, families will eventually fall apart like the one in this story.
A Handful of Dates
A Handful of Dates, by Tayeh Salih, is a north African story about a boy and his grandfather who live in an area where dates are grown. The two characters help a man harvest his dates from the field and in the process, the boy is given a handful of dates to eat. The boy later learns that the date farmer is in debt to the grandfather for some unknown reason. This story reminds me of my childhood in some ways. Like some situations from my childhood, the details in this story were somewhat unexplained. For example, it was never explained to the reader why the date farmer was in debt to the grandfather. As a result the boy was a little scared and confused because he could not understand why his grandfather, who he idolized, didn't like the seemingly harmless date farmer. I can remember situations similar to this from my past when a family member was feuding with another person for some unexplainable reason.
A Conversation from the Third Floor
A Conversation from the Third Floor, by Mohamed El-Bisatie, is about a woman who sees her husband from outside the gates of a prison. He gets very excited to see her and his infant son and starts talking to her from the third floor of the prison. I felt this story lacked the structure and details needed in order to keep the reader informed about what was happening and why it was happening. Like a few previous stories in the book, this story did not give any details about when, where, and why some important things happened. For instance, it is never explained why the husband was incarcerated or where he would be transferred. Another problem with this story was the ending, or lack thereof. After the conversation with her husband, the lady walked down the passageway to the street and that was it. This could have been deemed a reasonably good story if it had an ending.
Minutes of Glory, by Ngugiwa Thiong'o is an east African story about a plain looking barmaid in search of attention and acceptance. Driven by vanity, she steals money from one of her customers and uses it to buy new clothes, shoes, make-up, etc. She later returns to the bar and gets exactly what she was in search of, attention and acceptance from other males. Shortly thereafter the victimized customer has her arrested and put in jail which in turn makes him an instant hero. He is immediately showered with the attention and acceptance the girl craved for so long, which is what makes this story so ironic. Both the barmaid and customer are plain, boring people who are frequently ignored by their peers. The irony is, as I stated above, that the barmaid took drastic measures to achieve her goals only to have them stripped away and given to the man who did nothing to work for them.
I felt this story was too long and drawn out from the beginning. There was far too much useless information given to the reader. The conclusion was interesting and tied the story off quite well.
The Green Leaves
The Green Leaves, by Grace Ogot is a story about three cattle thieves who are chased through the night by a group of villagers. Two thieves escape, one is soon captured and murdered by the mob of angry vigilantes. They made the mistake of assuming the man would die and covered him with leaves, then left him for dead. One villager later came back to pick the dead thief's pockets but was murdered by the thief in the process. This story teaches two lessons: 1.) Never make assumptions about important issues. 2.) Never make a choice fueled by greed. The unfortunate villager in this story made both mistakes at the same time, which ultimately led to his demise.
The Spider's Web
The Spider's Web, by Leonard Kibera, is an African story about a man who seems to be a slave. I felt it was hard to figure out exactly what this story was about. It had no logical flow to the series of events; everything was random at best. My best guess at the moral lesson of the story is that one should never give up on anything, even the darkest situations can be overcome. This story was poorly constructed and very confusing.
An Incident in the Ghobashi Household
An Incident in the Ghobashi Household, by Alifa Rifaat, is a north African story about a girl who is pregnant with an illegitimate son. She tries to hide it for some time but her mother inevitably finds out. They decide the best course of action is to have the girl run away to Cairo so her father doesn't find out about the pregnancy. I think this story is an example of how intolerance can, in certain situations, be a terrible burden. Family members should be there to support each other no matter what. It should never be the case that someone has to runaway from home to keep another family member from becoming upset. Honesty and support are two major characteristics in a functional family. Without them, families will eventually fall apart like the one in this story.
A Handful of Dates
A Handful of Dates, by Tayeh Salih, is a north African story about a boy and his grandfather who live in an area where dates are grown. The two characters help a man harvest his dates from the field and in the process, the boy is given a handful of dates to eat. The boy later learns that the date farmer is in debt to the grandfather for some unknown reason. This story reminds me of my childhood in some ways. Like some situations from my childhood, the details in this story were somewhat unexplained. For example, it was never explained to the reader why the date farmer was in debt to the grandfather. As a result the boy was a little scared and confused because he could not understand why his grandfather, who he idolized, didn't like the seemingly harmless date farmer. I can remember situations similar to this from my past when a family member was feuding with another person for some unexplainable reason.
A Conversation from the Third Floor
A Conversation from the Third Floor, by Mohamed El-Bisatie, is about a woman who sees her husband from outside the gates of a prison. He gets very excited to see her and his infant son and starts talking to her from the third floor of the prison. I felt this story lacked the structure and details needed in order to keep the reader informed about what was happening and why it was happening. Like a few previous stories in the book, this story did not give any details about when, where, and why some important things happened. For instance, it is never explained why the husband was incarcerated or where he would be transferred. Another problem with this story was the ending, or lack thereof. After the conversation with her husband, the lady walked down the passageway to the street and that was it. This could have been deemed a reasonably good story if it had an ending.
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