Tropical Fish: Tales from Entebbe

Needed it for 1 course and it served its purpose. Perfect place to purchase books you only need once. Cheaper than renting or buying from my college bookstore

This time next week, I'll be in Kampala, Uganda giving a five-day workshop to the amazing women of an organization called FEMRITE. I am so stoked about the opportunity. Right now, I am preparing a packet of short stories to use as texts. Obviously, I went right to Tropical Fish. I'd read Tropical Fish before, but I had forgotten just how brilliant Doreen is! I am forcing myself to choose only two stories for my packet, but I can't begin to choose. I love me some coming of age stories and her young narrators are aces. I know I'll end up using one of the epistolary stories because writing a letter that seems like a letter, but still tells a story is a complicated maneuver-- which Doreen pulls off not once, but twice in the collection. So, here are the stories I am thinking of using and a little bit of summary. *"A Thank You Note" This story is a letter from Rosa who is in the final stages of HIV to her lover, David. The letter is both personal and real, but at the same time really gives a reader a close look at the physical ravages of the disease and also the way that you can trace the spread of HIV to the complicated networks of culture. *"Hunger" A formerly well-off girl in boarding school must beg for sugar from the "posh" girls. This is a dynamite look at class and entitlement. The ending put me in the mind of James Baldwin. So good I wanted to eat it. *"Tropical Fish" The title story is a knock out. Christine, whom we meet as a girl in earlier stories, is grown up now and has fallen into a relationship with a British exporter of fish. It's about sex, power, race, and voice. I know I said I can only use two, but there are just so many tempting stories. I wish, I wish, I could afford to buy books for all thirty women in the class!

I absolutely loved this hilarious book because I could identify with some of the characters- The setting is not in a village, the stories are not about nice respectable African girls like we sometimes want the world to believe. Ms. Baingana weaves a story of three African girls growing up in urban Uganda struggling with everyday adolescent issues and College life. She also gives a very clear picture of life of an African immigrant and problems faced in trying to fit in upon return. Very good pick for a book club and rather than borrow from a library, buy one for home library.

This is an excellent book. Especially the story entitled A Thank You Note. I would like to read more from this author.

An amazing set of short stories by debut author Doreen Baingana, "Tropical Fish" quickly drew me in and held me captive until the very last page of the last tale in a series of stories on the lives and development of three Ugandan sisters. Largely focused on the youngest, Christine Mugisha, these stories take us into life as young women in a society full of such promise but decimated in many ways by missteps such as the regime of Idi Amin. Christine Mugisha and her eldest sister Rosa and the middle child Patti are drawn in strong contrasts, as well as powerful parallels. They are all young women trying to find their way in society with a shared family history. However, each has clutched a different talisman as their saving grace. Rosa seeks comfort and support in a group of friends and in the arms of a young man with whom she has a secret relationship. Patti chooses God as she immerses herself in the society of born-again Christians. Christine searches in many places including both of the paths already chosen by her older sisters. Eventually her quest takes her to the United States of America as she seeks to distinguish herself and truly find out who she is. The paths that each of them takes lead them to distinct destinies. Following their journeys through the eyes and words of Ms. Baingana was a true joy. Author Baingana is a treasure. She captures the nuances of life in post-Amin Uganda without over politicizing her tales or her characters. In fact, she very convincingly portrays the normal struggles of young women transitioning into full adulthood over the background of struggles of class, gender and politics amongst other issues. I look forward to her navigating another delightful journey.