Abstract

This collection of short stories is a train that promises a journey of sorts and gives snapshots of characters’ diverse worlds and motivations. A mother loses her voice after losing everything to the modern developments; a strange friendship develops between a coffin-maker and a little boy that stutters. The coffin shop becomes a haven for them as they negotiate with their own tragedies. Sugartown announces a strange woman, Grace, who works as a barmaid amidst a militia group’s insurgence. The Heart is a Bastard unpacks unrequited love that features a femme fatale and her houseboy who waits to be let in as a man and a father. Mareba’s Tavern personifies a woman who cherishes sexual autonomy. Marisela’s Underwear unearths the AIDs scourge. The narrator grapples with the eerie incident of the disappearance of the woman’s underwear that invokes a curse on every witness.
Yet in Little Paradise the daring Cheche finds her freedom when her husband-to-be is said to be arriving soon. Another daring boy in Gathering Darkness in a Bucket trails his brother who disappeared. Later found in a brothel, the narrator rejoices at the realization the bullies were wrong. In Fangs we witness how telenovelas unite and disunite this family. The narrator watches as the venom sips into her mother’s heart following her father’s disappearance. Some Sunshine is a coming of age story that balances between urbanism and traditional model as we know love to be.