African Short Stories

What stylistic elements have you enjoyed lately in the stories? (Show us some bits of the writing that you like/admire)

It is interesting to see how styles of writing change regionally, in general. In this book of conglomerated short stories, we are provided stories from the western, eastern, northern and southern regions of Africa. It is not an easy task to generalize styles in the case of this book because each story's author has its own voice, provoking different reactions.
In some cases, we are given lots of dialogue. Dialogue is, in my opinion, one of the better styles of writing short stories. Throughout the course of class, we have discussed voice in a piece and whether it is introverted (implying feeling) or extroverted (explicitly saying 'this is how one should react/feel'). Dialogue undoubtedly helps the reader feel closer with the characters in a story. For example, in the stories, Papa, Snake & I and A Conversation from the Third Floor, the narration is aided by dialogue in influencing a reader, as opposed to that of the omniscient narrator in a story like Minutes of Glory, which may give readers preconceived outlook on a story before giving them a chance to form their own views.
Contextually, we see talk of animals and nature (The Gentlemen of the Jungle, The Green Leaves) and religion and politics (stories early on, The Betrayal)--all recurring themes throughout the course of class.