Friday, August 28, 2020

Review: HIS ONLY WIFE



5 Stars

As educational as it is enlightening and intriguing,  HIS ONLY WIFE focuses on a young Ghanaian,  Afi, who is linked in a traditional Ghanaian marriage to a man she doesn't know.  Not only is this not a marriage of love,  it's not even a marriage of convenience: she is chosen by the man's very wealthy entrepreneur mother, known as Aunty, to wed her son Eli in order to drive away the Liberian mistress whom Eli loves. So after a childhood of middle-class comfort collapsed into poverty after her father's untimely death, this young lady is shunted into an unasked for union with a man who might as well be alien, to fulfill a purpose not her own, to satisfy another Family.

Wednesday, August 12, 2020

Tour: IMPERSONATION by Heidi Pitlor



4 Stars

Allie is a single mother of a biracial child she adores and a freelance ghostwriter and landscaper.  As a ghostwriter, she knows fame will always elude her. Also as a ghostwriter she melds what others say, not what her creativity might provide, and she is a channel, as it were, for whatever others do in their lives, their beliefs and perceptions,  not her own. It seemed to me that this was her life pattern: adapting herself to others, for even as a marketing copywriter at a Manhattan equity firm,  Allie molded herself to what others wanted her to be. Now, however,  she is confronted with evidence regarding a client's sexual offenses,  an eruption that will greatly affect her own income and hopes to improve life for herself and Cass. It's time to stop being a reflection,  a mirror, a channel, and find her True Self, the real Allie, whoever she is.

Thursday, August 6, 2020

A HOUSE IS A BODY by Shruti Swamy




5 Literary Stars

Shruti Swamy's debut short story collection is a marvel of stunningly delineated character,  of fully conceptualized settings (in both India and San Francisco), of characters who are "not quite us" but simultaneously "like us." Best read one story at a time, accompanied by lots of thought and consideration,  this collection of literary short fiction proves an eye opener for the psyche and imagination. 

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