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A review by mrsdallogay
Foreign Soil by Maxine Beneba Clarke
4.0
Revolving around people who find themselves in situations, or in lifestyles which are contrapuntal to normality, the stories in Foreign Soil resonate in a world becoming more and more disparate every single day.
Personal favourites in this collection are the two longest. "Gaps in the Hickory" deals with transgenderism in a phenomenal way, there is a revelation half way through the tale that quite surprises but this only serves to exhibit Clarke's maturity in handling this topic. She steers away from the melodramatic and the ridiculous; she shows us real people, dealing with real circumstances.
"The Stilt Fishermen of Kathaluwa" discusses illegal immigration, focusing on a young boy - Asanka - and his experience: fleeing Sri Lanka, where the Tigers and his traumatic past reside, and voyaging to Australia - the country of the free, if you can get in. Clarke's depiction of this experience is harrowing and her prose violently unflinching. Ink dissipates and her story is told through the blood of the lost.
Topical and impressive, this is a debut collection that everyone should read in order to feel a little more human, to understand each other a little better: to see each other a little more humanly.
Personal favourites in this collection are the two longest. "Gaps in the Hickory" deals with transgenderism in a phenomenal way, there is a revelation half way through the tale that quite surprises but this only serves to exhibit Clarke's maturity in handling this topic. She steers away from the melodramatic and the ridiculous; she shows us real people, dealing with real circumstances.
"The Stilt Fishermen of Kathaluwa" discusses illegal immigration, focusing on a young boy - Asanka - and his experience: fleeing Sri Lanka, where the Tigers and his traumatic past reside, and voyaging to Australia - the country of the free, if you can get in. Clarke's depiction of this experience is harrowing and her prose violently unflinching. Ink dissipates and her story is told through the blood of the lost.
Topical and impressive, this is a debut collection that everyone should read in order to feel a little more human, to understand each other a little better: to see each other a little more humanly.