Tag Archives: Some Sing Some Cry

Reading Well: Kintu by Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi

Posted on May 26, 2018 by Daniel (@MKNN)

Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi‘s Kintu (2014) has received a lot of positive buzz, even being hailed as the first great Ugandan novel, whatever that means (I don’t mean to dismiss the praise, rather to problematize the terms first, great, and Ugandan). It’s an ambitious novel: … Continue reading →

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Reading Well: Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi

Posted on July 9, 2017 by Daniel (@MKNN)

Homegoing (2016) belongs to an honored tradition of African-American fiction, a generation by generation narrative tracing a family’s life from a moment a few centuries distant in West Africa, through the horrors of capture and slavery (and often encompassing moments of … Continue reading →

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Reading Well: The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead

Posted on June 11, 2017 by Daniel (@MKNN)

Published in 2016, Colson Whitehead‘s The Underground Railroad is a very hot property: best seller, Oprah Book Club selection, and extraordinarily topical. It’s not quite a work of historical fiction, but it’s not far off: the novel traces the story of an … Continue reading →

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Reading Well: The Interrogation of Ashala Wolf by Ambelin Kwaymullina

Posted on May 5, 2016 by Daniel (@MKNN)

When I wrote about Some Sing, Some Cry, I was struck by how difficult it is for books to be successful. It takes a magic combination of timing, marketing, critical reception, and, yes, inherent quality. The more cynical you feel, the … Continue reading →

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Reading Well: Some Sing, Some Cry by Ntozake Shange & Ifa Bayeza

Posted on March 3, 2016 by Daniel (@MKNN)

Some Sing, Some Cry (2010) is a novel by Ntozake Shange and her sister (and playwright) Ifa Bayeza that belongs to a long tradition of explorations of the African-American experience through the eyes of a single family (in this case, the Mayfields). They are a … Continue reading →

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