A review by siria
Call and Response by Gothataone Moeng

emotional reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character

3.25

A debut collection of short stories set in contemporary Botswana. Gothataone Moeng has often vivid turns of phrase and a real knack for letting a character's words and actions show us who they are. I could "see" many of the people she talks about here—often young women feeling themselves pulled in various directions—with great clarity. There are some beautiful poignant moments here. But I found Call and Response to be more a series of vignettes/character studies than stories proper, with the individual pieces seeming to come to an end rather than truly finishing. And I think I could roll a little more easily with a story that faded out like that if I felt it had been written with a point in mind rather than a theme. That quibble aside, there's a great deal of promise here and I'll keep an eye out of Moeng's forthcoming novel.