Short story collection about the immigrant experience
SEND HER BACK is a collection of 16 short stories about black women’s immigrant experience in the US. Although fiction, the book seems as if it’s non-fiction. Munashe Kaseke excels at creating characters that feel real, making it hard not to empathize. Both poignant and hopeful, SEND HER BACK is a read that deals with some heavy topics including racism, sexism, and abuse. Kaseke chooses an interesting format of using first- and third-person narration as well as a couple of stories in the not often used second-person.
A few things kept this from being a higher rated read for me. There was an inconsistency in the writing with some stories being significantly stronger than others. After a certain point, the protagonists meshed together. Though each story centered on a different Zimbabwean woman’s experience, many of the stories felt too similar. I may have preferred several novellas instead of this larger short story collection so that there could have been more character development and less overlap between story themes.
Altogether, this was a good read to learn more about Zimbabwean culture and the immigrant experience. I will keep an eye out for any future books by this author.
I’d recommend SEND HER BACK to anyone looking to read about black women’s immigrant experience in the US with an emphasis on Zimbabwean culture.
A few things kept this from being a higher rated read for me. There was an inconsistency in the writing with some stories being significantly stronger than others. After a certain point, the protagonists meshed together. Though each story centered on a different Zimbabwean woman’s experience, many of the stories felt too similar. I may have preferred several novellas instead of this larger short story collection so that there could have been more character development and less overlap between story themes.
Altogether, this was a good read to learn more about Zimbabwean culture and the immigrant experience. I will keep an eye out for any future books by this author.
I’d recommend SEND HER BACK to anyone looking to read about black women’s immigrant experience in the US with an emphasis on Zimbabwean culture.