Review; Bitter Leafing Woman by Karen King-Aribisala

Last year, I ended up reading the short story collection Bitter Leafing Woman by Karen King-Aribisala and today I'll post my review.

Description from Amazon
Set in Nigeria, Bitter Leafing Woman relates the experiences of Woman as she chews the bitter leaves of patriarchal oppression in a bid to transform them into gender balanced sweetness. Here Woman becomes a symbol of the oppressed; of women and men alike. The style of writing ranges from plain prose as in The Edi Kai Ikong War, magical realism as in World of the Fat/Thin House, the social satire of The Bone Eater, the densely poetic and symbolic Broken Plate and the biblical imbued style of Bitter Leafing Woman who finding herself drowning in the soup of gender oppression for forty years attempts to murder her Deacon fiancé.
In this collection we become involved with serious issues of conflicts, which nevertheless we try to treat with sardonic humour and insight.

My Thoughts on the Book
It's a well-written short story collection with a few thought-provoking pieces. The short stories themselves are varied, but that's part of what makes them interesting and I wish more people knew of this collection.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Spotlight; Dancing in the Rain av Lucy Appadoo

Image
Can she end the turmoil and escape the firmly built trap to find the freedom she craves? Book Details: Book Title: Dancing in the Rain (The Italian Family Series) Author: Lucy Appadoo Category: Adult Fiction, 274 pages Genre: Historical Coming of Age/Romance/Family Drama Publisher: Lucy Appadoo Release date: March 24, 2017 Tour dates: June 5 to 23, 2017 Content Rating: PG-13 + M (There is physical abuse and death involved.) Book Description: Fifteen-year old Valeria Allegro works diligently on the family farm in Italy, where she is torn between her duty to her family and her desire to find freedom from her strict, domineering father. She finds solace in Dario, a young student who provides a blissful escape—until a neighbour’s son, Gregorio, decides he wants her for himself. This raises an alarm for her father, which leads to family conflict and aggression. When Dario is threatened and her family is plagued by a series of suspicious accidents, Vale...
Read more

Announcing the 2022 Diversity Reading Challenge

Image
As we're writing 2022 in two months, I figured out it was time to announce the 2022 Diversity Challenge. I've hosted it in 2019 and 2021, and decided to host it next year too. I’m not going to make any categories or levels for this challenge, as I want it to be a bit flexible. Read as many books as you feel like reading and yes, it can be children’s books, graphic novels, e-books, non-fiction, audio books, poetry and you-name-it. As it is a diversity reading challenge, it would be mean to exclude some types of reading materials, right? Now, what is diversity you might ask? What I mean by diversity is, but not limited to; People of colour/non-caucasian characters/authors Native Americans and other indigenous people LGBTQIA+ Authors/characters defining themselves as trans, intersex, genderfluid or similar Refugees Religious minorities Mental illnesses/disorders Neurodiversity (like ADD, Aspergers and autism) Feminist themes/issues Physical/mental disabilities Characters/authors w...
Read more

Announcing the 2025 Diversity Reading Challenge

Image
Even though I'm technically having a hiatus for my book blogging at the moment, I still wanted to announce the 2025 Diversity Reading Challenge, just in case anyone wanted to participate in it and start planning their TBR pile. I’m not going to make any categories or levels for this challenge, as I want it to be a bit flexible. Read as many books as you feel like reading and yes, it can be children’s books, graphic novels, e-books, non-fiction, audio books, poetry and you-name-it. As it is a diversity reading challenge, it would be mean to exclude some types of reading materials, right? Now, what is diversity you might ask? What I mean by diversity is, but not limited to; People of colour/non-caucasian characters/authors Native Americans and other indigenous people LGBTQIA+ Authors/characters defining themselves as trans, intersex, genderfluid or similar Refugees Religious minorities Mental illnesses/disorders Neurodiversity (like ADHD and autism) Feminist themes/issues Physical/m...
Read more