Funny she fixes feminine problems now, when she was my problem then.

CBR10Bingo – Covers

Here’s the covers I found:

 

Anyway, I misunderstood the title of the book every single time I read it until the audiobook narrator said it for me. I was eyeing this one for awhile and I am a little leery of story collections because so many times they are treated as a means to an end, and so you either get the same story told a bunch of different times or you get stuff that’s very typical of the market.

The first story corrected my error quickly. I recently saw Sorry to Bother You and going in I knew it was a little weird but man it was a lot weird. And it reminded me so much of books by Paul Beatty, Ishmael Reed, and even George Schuyler. When I walked out I really hoped to see more movies by Boots Riley.

This story collection started off the same way for me. It’s not as “weird” but it’s different from other story collections in that the stories here…say 75% of them…are off-kilter and unexpected. And some of them, such as a fight between two PhD sharing an office over fluorescent lights or two bougie moms sending letters back and forth to each other about their misbehaving daughters. But even when they are weird and funny and interesting, there comes a story that is thoughtful and touching and heartbreaking. What I took from this book was a very engaging set of stories each purposeful and intentional, none wasted, none trying to get noticed, all just working.

 

(Photo: http://www.thefeministwire.com/2011/07/writer-spotlight-nafissa-thompson-spires/)