Having loved The Wedding by Dorothy West, I was keen to read more of her work, and when I spotted this anthology of her essays and short stories on ebay, it didn't take much to get me to buy it! The first half comprises short stories, based on similar situations to that of The wedding - i.e. the themes of African and American life, originally published in magazines. The second half of the book was the part that I found most interesting, being some autobiographical skethces which enabled me to build up a picture of West and understand a bit more about how she came to be a writer, for example insisting on a lock on her door age 8 so that she could write in peace. Apparently West is best known for her short stories, but I am keen to read her other novel, The living is easy now as I do prefer sustained narratives.It's just been published the once by Virago.
3*
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