What It Means When a Man Falls from the Sky

These short stories are exceptional. I got through five of them, and thought each of them was great, and I knew I should probably skip the sixth based on reviews, but I didn't, and I didn't see it coming, and now I have to put it down. It's not you, Ms. Arimah, it's me. A single mother and her young daughter make a living by suing for slip-and-fall injuries that the mother orchestrates on purpose. The daughter gets pregnant when she's a teenager. At six months along, she slips and falls on accident and lands on her belly in a way that can only be described as violent, and she loses the baby. Her mother is only able muster up excitement for how big the settlement is for this.

‘'Girls with fire in their bellies will be forced to drink from a well of correction till the flames die out.''

In this outstanding collection by the Nigerian writer Leslie Nneka Arimah, family is examined in all its forms. Family means unconditional love and protection. But there is a very fine, fragile line between protection and asphyxiation, between love and care and the deep wish for absolute dominion over the life of your children. Motherhood acquires centre stage and is seen in a realistic, even raw, light. We meet mothers who nurture and protect, mothers who oppress, mothers who exploit. And most importantly, we meet daughters whose cry of independence and the right to decide their course echoes through the pages of one of the most exceptional books I've ever had the fortune to read.

This collection is as ferocious as life itself.

The Future Looks Good: We meet a young woman as she is about to unlock the door of an apartment. Through her eyes, we see her family. Her parents, her elder sister. We encounter the hell of the war in Nigeria and the various labours of love. But nothing, nothing can prepare us for the end. An astonishing story in less than six pages.

War Stories: A girl narrates the story of the cruelty of children, the weakness of human nature, the nightmare of war, the secrets of a family. Powerful and moving.

Wild: A teenage girl is sent to stay with her aunt in Nigeria. There she has to face the wild nature of her cousin and a mysterious past. A story of motherhood, womanhood, and the repercussions of a cultural shock.

Light: A moving story about fatherhood and the special bond between a daughter and a father who raises his child alone. And a ‘'mother'' who is anything but.

Second Chances: The loss of a mother has been haunting her eldest daughter for eight years. But what happens when she returns all of a sudden? Can the girl forgive and forget? Is such a thing even possible?

‘'There is a science to it, falling.''

Windfalls: A despicable woman has found an abominable way to make money, abusing and exploiting her daughter. The wounds she has caused are unhealable. A shocking, poignant story of disastrous ‘'motherhood''.

‘'Where are you going?I am going home.Who will greet you at home?My mother will greet me.What will your mother do?My mother will bless me and my child.''

Who Will Greet You At Home: Ιs there an equation to heal pain, war wounds and despair? A mathematician tries to help as many victims as she can. But in a world ravaged by floods that led to its destruction, falling is a reality...

Glory: A young woman has managed to escape her overbearing mother until the day her potential mother-in-law makes an appearance. Glory has to make a choice that involves her independence and the right to remain true to herself and not to the expectations of others.

‘'If you can't please the gods, trick them.''

What Is A Volcano?: A beautiful, haunting myth about the tragic feud between the goddess of rivers and the god of ants and the creation of volcanoes.

Redemption: A girl learns about the secrets and cruelty of the adult world and the way it corrupts even the children who try to escape misery and cruel ‘'families''.

‘'How many people had Kioni worked with over the last decade? Five thousand? Ten? Ten thousand traumas in her psyche, squeezing past each other, vying for the attention of their host. What would happen if you couldn't forget, if every emotion from every person whose grief you'd eaten came back up? It could happen, if something went wrong with the formula millions and millions of permutations down the line. A thousand falling men landing on you.''

My reviews can also be found on https://theopinionatedreaderblog.wordpress.com/

So, so, so good. Instant “to reread” designation.

“There is this thing that distance does where it subtracts warmth and context and history and each finds that they're arguing with a stranger.”

I bought this short-story collection after hearing “What It Means When a Man Falls from the Sky”, the collection's namesake, on LeVar Burton's podcast. I enjoyed the stories, though none of them were as good as “What It Means When a Man Falls from the Sky”, which really struck a cord with me. Definitely an author to keep your eye on!

The debut collection of short stories from Lesley Nneka Arimah sparkles with a chorus of women, each of whom is given their own special voice. These women are in Nigeria, where the author was born, as well as in the United States, where the author now lives.

Good short stories are not easy to write, but Ms. Arimah certainly has honed her craft. Even more surprising is the mix of magical realism, folktales, fiction, and science fiction, which I wasn't expecting. Ms. Arimah excelled at each genre and wove a full story in just a few pages. In fact, there were at least 4 stories that knocked my socks off to the point that I had to put the book down for a few minutes to let the conclusion wash over me.

I was particularly interested to read a book about Nigerians here and in Nigeria because one nonprofit I work for has been sending a number of grants to that country.

Thanks the the PBS News Hour Book Club for Choosing this book as the August selection. Their site contains a Q&A with the author, an annotated page, discussion questions, and a live interview:

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/features/now-read-this/

Birther of Volcanos

Bernadine Evaristus, Aminata Forna, Jennifer Makumbi. Nneka Arimah joins these conjurers of words with an accomplished collection of shorts that steal repeatedly across the crepuscular boundaries between earth and the spirit world...with characters that clutch to a sanity that might just be madness.

She shapes and reshapes themes around filial (and familial) fidelity, marinating her fragments of tales in absence and loss yet keeping them suffused in a humanity that doesn't succumb to dystopian despair. She effortlessly bends time and space, reimagining creation and invoking distant futures.

In the best of fiction, short fiction especially, possibility reverberates long after the words end. Nneka Arimah may just be a Nigerian Lee Scratch Perry — a master of rhythm, deep melody and futuristic echoes. A magician.

A great collection of stories rooted in our own land and a land far away. Lyrical and beautiful and worth your time.

Not a fan of this story.

For the Read Harder Challenge 2017: Read a collection of stories by a woman. I am not usually a fan of short stories, but this was quirky, moving, and full of interesting twists.

So many great collections of short stories lately. This book is incredible. “Windfalls” and “Who Will Greet You at Home” feel like snippets from much larger stories. Arimah manages to switch from modern day to futuristic dystopian to mythology without missing a beat. I'll be preordering her novel.