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jon288's review against another edition
4.0
A very mixed bag; a lot of different styles, genres, types of writing; short stories, poetry, excerpts from novels. But that was one of the most interesting aspects of the book - and what do you expect from something that is trying to encompass contemporary writers from an entire continent? Some were great, some terrible - but I got to read from a lot of countries that I otherwise might not have been able to track down very easily
sookieskipper's review
3.0
Wole Soyinka's introduction lays down a path for some of the finest African writers. With mostly unknown names, this collection could have been a wonderful "get-to-know-new-author" anthology but unfortunately didn't deliver on its intent.
While some of the stories are near perfect narration, many ended up being handful of chapter from their own respective long form of writing/novels. This was stifling in experience as there was no definitive end for some of the "stories". [Stories is a strong word because they are essentially first one or two chapters from a novel.]
Story reviews soon.
While some of the stories are near perfect narration, many ended up being handful of chapter from their own respective long form of writing/novels. This was stifling in experience as there was no definitive end for some of the "stories". [Stories is a strong word because they are essentially first one or two chapters from a novel.]
Story reviews soon.
alicetragedy's review
3.0
(Actual rating: 3.5 stars)
This collection of short stories and excerpts from novels (or works in progress) is puzzling. I quite enjoyed the first half of the collection, but I struggled through most of the second half. Some of the short stories were really, really great (notably Adichie's “The Shivering”, Edwige Renee Dro’s “The Professor”, Abubakar Adam Ibrahim’s “Echoes of Mirth”, as well as the excerpts of “Harlot”, “Why radio DJs are Superstars in Lagos”, “The tiger of the Mangroves”, “New mom”, “Our time of sorrow”, “Soham’s mulatto”), but some of the other stories were confusing or downright terrible (I even skipped a few!). I found it difficult to constantly need to adapt to a new pace or writing style, and some of the excerpts were hard to understand, having no additional context.
That's probably to be expected when putting together the works of 39 authors, with no real thread connecting their work other than a continent; with each new story and writer comes a context and style switch, so it's not surprising I didn't love this collection. In some cases, it was clear that some of the texts were complete works in progress, that probably needed polishing or altering and perhaps having them in a collection of short stories didn't do them justice.
I would, however, still recommend it to people who are interested in discovering new voices from different countries in Africa.
From this list, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie was the only writer I knew, and I’ve definitely discovered some gems I'm looking forward to reading more of in the future.
This collection of short stories and excerpts from novels (or works in progress) is puzzling. I quite enjoyed the first half of the collection, but I struggled through most of the second half. Some of the short stories were really, really great (notably Adichie's “The Shivering”, Edwige Renee Dro’s “The Professor”, Abubakar Adam Ibrahim’s “Echoes of Mirth”, as well as the excerpts of “Harlot”, “Why radio DJs are Superstars in Lagos”, “The tiger of the Mangroves”, “New mom”, “Our time of sorrow”, “Soham’s mulatto”), but some of the other stories were confusing or downright terrible (I even skipped a few!). I found it difficult to constantly need to adapt to a new pace or writing style, and some of the excerpts were hard to understand, having no additional context.
That's probably to be expected when putting together the works of 39 authors, with no real thread connecting their work other than a continent; with each new story and writer comes a context and style switch, so it's not surprising I didn't love this collection. In some cases, it was clear that some of the texts were complete works in progress, that probably needed polishing or altering and perhaps having them in a collection of short stories didn't do them justice.
I would, however, still recommend it to people who are interested in discovering new voices from different countries in Africa.
From this list, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie was the only writer I knew, and I’ve definitely discovered some gems I'm looking forward to reading more of in the future.
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