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.