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The Short Review – A Book of Blues Review
•29/07/2011 • Leave a CommentWith thanks to Tania Hersman and Arja Salafranca.
“I feel stars crackle and spit like eggs frying in the darkness, squint them into focus until they become scattered dust motes. The music is distant, lost below the resigned sigh of the wind; every now and then a faint song emerges.”
—
This eclectic, diverse, and interesting collection ranges across countries – from the exotic African island of Lamu, off the coast of Kenya, to the heat of Miami, to the coldness of the underground to the gritty, roughly-hewn streets of London. In tone and style too, this collection offers a range:Beach Boy, which opens the book is an intensely lyrical piece; while in All Woman the narrator talks in a Caribbean patois-accent, and other stories zing with humour and sassiness.
I have to start with the achingly beautiful and memorable Beach Boy, a story of such poetry, it lingers on long after the first reading, and a story I wished would carry on.
Palermo, a poet from London, is travelling on a grant from the Arts Council, spending time on Lamu, when he meets the beautifully-named Shalini, a PhD student from Vancouver. What follows is a tender, albeit brief encounter, it must be described as a love affair, such is the depth of the encounter. And yet this layered story moves from beyond the encounter to explore Palermo’s uneasy relationship to the boys of the island, who consider this place their turf, and Palermo an outsider. A sense of menace prevails and cuts through the story. We return to the character of Shalini in the final collection in this book, The Bright Side of the Moon, which focuses a spotlight on a period of Shalini’s life, and it feels like returning eagerly to an old friend. These two lovers remain startlingly vivid in my mind, taking hold in way that isn’t always common in a short story.
Miami Heat is another story that grips the imagination and refuses to let go. Freelance music journo, the zanily-named Serendipity Henry, is assigned to interview the band The Cheeba Monks, “hip-hop hippies”. The story begins with the lines: “Anyone could tell that life had been cruel before I got to the airport, and it didn’t change once I got there.” Words that set the tone of this story.
She’s flown from Gatwick, which reminds her of a budget Heathrow, on a press junket to stay at a swish hotel, interview the band and party on. What follows is a rip-roaring, almost breathless story about what’s it’s like to attend a press junket, travel with people you barely know, get hit on, and generally lurch from disaster to disaster. This long story never lags, and is shot through and carried by Serendipity Henry’s droll, amusing voice. And yet there’s pathos beneath the humour, a pathos that lifts Miami Heat above the mere telling of a music jouno’s ungainly journey.
Underground is a startlingly simple tale – yet quietly powerful story that reaches into the supernatural for inspiration. Joshua is visiting a cemetery, reading the words on a gravestone when a woman appears before him: “Her face thin and pale with cold, her eyes wide and circular.” She wears the dress of another century and speaks English in an old-fashioned way, addressing Joshua by another name. A coming together of man and woman across centuries unfolds – a highly believable, and beautiful story of love. You suspend belief, and aren’t even aware that you’re doing so. Love has seldom been so finely described and conjured up, a definite highlight of this collection.
A clever and amusing story is Passive Smoke, which also leaves a series of chills in its wake. It all begins ordinarily enough: Evie and Max live together in cosy domesticity, except for the fact that Max smokes, and Evie’s attempts to get him to quit result in frustration and a strange quirk of togetherness that I won’t reveal because the thrust of this story turns on Evie’s discovery. It’s a story of revenge, but a revenge so sweet and unusual it takes a master of the craft to fashion a story that keeps you hooked, smiling with a simple delight and gleefully reading to the end. And yet, it’s also subtly chilling to read of the malice that can fester within a relationship and the hurt that results.
Other stories in the collection look at old friendships and how impossible it is to return to the closeness that has been, and the distance that years bring in Re-Entry; Fresh for ’88 brings back the past for a teenager living in a council house, trying to survive childhood and its mean streets;White Goods follows a two friends who have been selling antique goods at Portobello Market for 15 years, rummaging in a household and industrial tip, an experience that leaves the one with a new appreciation for the sweetness of air. Meanwhile, Spider Man, another excellent and quietly powerful story, uses the metaphor of a spider moving across a man’s ceiling to explore the trajectory of a relationship and the insidious role of violence.
Newland’s stories are memorable, eclectic, pleasingly, unusual and his distinctive voice runs through each well-told tale.
Arja Salafranca
Italian-Somalian author Igiaba Scego
•29/07/2011 • Leave a CommentFrom Kalaamu Y Salaam’s Blog site Neo Griot – click here for interview
LOOK TO THE SKY – NEW PLAY TOURING OCT ’11
•27/07/2011 • Leave a CommentSo, the casting is done, the score’s being produced and I’m in the last stages of editing for my latest play, LOOK TO THE SKY, nominated for the Alfred Fagon award and touring in October this year. I’m very proud of this one so please come along and see what we’ve been doing!
For more details click here.
Congratulations Yvvette Edwards!!!
•27/07/2011 • 1 CommentBig congratulations to Yvvette Edwards on her Booker nomination. She proves you can write sensitive portrayals of working class Black people and be considered for literature’s most prestigious prize.
A BOOK OF BLUES KINDLE EDITION
•22/07/2011 • Leave a CommentJust been informed I’m on Kindle in the US! Hope that means UK people can purchase but please spread the word! Click link here for more details!
Still Shining – J Dilla Documentary Tribute
•22/07/2011 • Leave a CommentAwesome Dilla doc right here.
Self Publishing Workshop for African Writers
•11/07/2011 • Leave a CommentJust got sent this link, please click here for details.
‘A Book of Blues’ – Voice Interview
•10/07/2011 • 1 CommentHi Everyone,
Here’s an article for my ‘Starting to Write’ Course at the Urban Arvon – a 3 day writers workshop in London – for my details on that, click here.
And to read the actual interview, click here.
Sorry for not posting anything for awhile, it’s been a bit of a blur lately, but the good news is I have completed a new novel, which I’m very pleased with. Am hoping good things will come with that and I also have other good news which I’m waiting to share, but watch this space and all will be revealed.
Courttia
STORIES BY CANDLELIGHT 11.6.11 – 7-10PM
•07/06/2011 • Leave a CommentCome and enjoy a beer and short stories – three local writers treat you to a live reading of their work, by candlelight, at Brixi, the little curiosity shop in Brixton Market. Unit 7, 1st Avenue, Brixton Village, SW9 8PR
Courttia Newland reads from ‘A book of Blues’, his latest collection, published by Flambard Press:
Denrele, Brixton-based poet and prose writer, will read one of her new stories.
Leila Segal reads from ‘Leaving Cuba’, her forthcoming short story collection, to be published by Flipped Eye.
Tube: Brixton, Victoria Line Map: http://maps.google.com/?q=sw9+8pr
Call Emy on 07919 162428 for more details.
