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No Sweetness Here and Other Stories
Ama Ata Aidoo
Feminist Press
December 1995
On Sale: December 1, 1995
170 pages
ISBN: 1558611193
EAN: 9781558611191
Paperback
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Fiction Poetry
No Sweetness Here, Ama Ata Aidoo's early volume of short
fiction, is now available in the U.S. Set in West Africa,
these stories chart a geography of consciousness during a
period of transition from a colonial society through
independence into a post colonial world still in progress
today. The characters-as many men as women come alive on
these pages-enjoy good fortune and suffer pain in a
traditional African manner: through brilliant, witty,
defiant, image-laden speech. The style of these stories
renders African orality dramatically; characterization
emerges as much through the unique voice as through physical
appearance. The special strength of these stories lies in Aidoo's
sensitivity to men's as well as women's lives. Sometimes one
can feel even more compassion for the men who are often set
in ways counter-productive to living in an
African-controlled but tightly-hierarchical society. Even
the most critical consciousness-the Western-educated African
living abroad or returning home-sometimes doesn't "get it," The title story suggests more than meets the eye. If there
is no "sweetness," there is the salt essential to life, even
if it comes from tears, and the strength that comes from a
history of endurance. There is also the wit of the word and
the compassion of family and friends. The volume is at once
entertaining and deeply instructive not only about a
changing Africa, but about such universal themes as love,
marriage, work, family, sacrifice, privilege, and hierarchy.
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