S1E5 - S1.E5: What It Mans When A Man Falls From The Sky by Lesley Nneka Arimah

Misty Bloom Book Club

Episode Notes

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Hey guys, how are you doing? I hope you're taking good care of yourself and doing well. In this episode, I will be reviewing What It Means When A Man Falls From The Sky by Lesley Nneka Arimah. Are you ready? Cos I am. Let’s go clubbing! This book is a short story collection. So first things first, before I launch into my review, I’m gonna tell you about my beef with short story collections. I don't typically read them. And the reason I don’t read short stories is because I don't feel like I get enough time with the characters or enough time to sink my teeth into the character’s stories before I'm being dragged off into another story. It feels like speed dating. And for this reason Short story collections have always felt unsatisfying to me. So I usually avoid them. Something else that I don't like about short stories, is that usually not always, but usually the endings never give any resolutions. So I'm speaking of a true resolution though not the resolution that I want. Let me explain. For example, I, just like most people, typically yearn for a happy ending to stories. But even where I don't get a happy ending, I want some sort of closure. So even where I don't get the happy ending that I want I will admire the alternative ending. I respect the alternative ending. I will think that it's brave of the author to choose the alternative ending. I may even concede that the alternative ending was the better ending. But on the other hand, I also think it is cowardly for a writer to choose no ending, to leave the story unresolved. And I feel like short story writers are typically guilty of this and short stories give writers a cop out from any sort of true ending or closure. Short story writers are notorious for jumping off the story and leaving you hanging with some intentionally esoteric ending, with some fill in the blanks with your own ending. Personally I find it gutless, weak, pathetic and I don't see anything to be admired with a lack of resolution in storytelling. And short stories are often guilty of this. So there’s my rant and now that’s out of the way. But first I’ll give you a teaser of the book. The stories tackle domestic abuse, untreated ptsd and its effects on a family, troubled teenagers, ghosts, domestic and sexual abuse. So this review is going to be a little bit different than the reviews of novels. Because this is a short story collection so we are not following the same characters from beginning to end, we're not following the same narrative arc, the themes change from story to story, and so forth. So here’s what I loved about What It Means When A Man Falls From The Sky. Fortunately in what it means when a man falls from the sky, most of the stories are well resolved. This does not mean Happy Endings or Bad Endings it just means there's closure. Most of the stories don't leave you intentionally hanging by the end. What It Means When A Man Falls From The Sky is gorgeously written. The author's sentences are so economical it's a thing of stunning beauty. Lesley Nneka Arimah says the most with the least possible amount of words. I'll read from the first story called The Future looks good and this is from on page 2. But before I read it, the context here is that a step mother puts a boy out of his home. Got it? Ok here we go… "The boy is 15 and returns from the market to find his possessions in two plastic bags on the front door step, he doesn't even knock to find out why or to ask where he's supposed to go but squats with other unmothered boys in an abandoned half-built bungalow where his two best shirts are stolen and he learns to carry his money with him at all times. He begs, he sells scrap metal, he steals, and the third comes so easy to him it becomes his way out. He starts small, with picked pockets and goods snatched from poorly tended market stalls. He learns to pick locks, to hotwire cars, to finesse his sleight-of-hand." See how she very quickly describes how this boy is abandoned by his parents and forced to become scrappy and street smart. It is So tightly done. there was not a spare, extra word. For example if you contrast this against Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens. There's a huge chunk of the novel Oliver Twist where Charles Dickens spends a lot of his prose talking about how the Artful Dodger and Fagin teach Oliver how to become a pickpocket. A good good chunk of Oliver Twist is spent on what Lesley Nneka Arimah spends on a paragraph. Of course I understand that there are differences, one is novel and the other is a collection of short stories, and that in economizing your prose you sacrifice other things like character development and developing a fuller story for instance. But i still think my comparison between the two examples for the purposes of making my particular point about economy of words, holds. Or check this out on page 24 in the 3rd story titled Wild, but before I read the sentence I'd like to set the stage. Here we have a mother who's at her wit's end with her badly behaved daughter and she has had enough.. And so here goes the sentence. Enough had started with stupid teenage things that, magnified under the halo of Chinyere my well-behaved cousin made me a bad bad girl. So here's why i think this sentence is pretty great and that the writer's use of economy of words is so ridiculously good is because of how she introduces us to a new character Chinyere a well-behaved cousin and then uses just one word halo, to fully establish and develop this character. Halo is suggestive of as you know an angelic, saintly person and then when contrasted against the main character that this short story is about, you know the one whose mother has had enough, helps us understand more fully their personalities in so few words. Or how about one more example on page 25 still on the same story. "My mother was a small woman who carried her weight in her personality." Do you see how, tight and powerful that sentence is? basically, that short sentence tells us the mother is a small sized person with an outsized personality. These sentences are so good and I feel like they gleam because they are scrubbed of anything unnecessary. No superfluous adjectives no unnecessary adverbs. And let me tell you applying restraint as a writer is an extremely difficult thing to do and this author has honed this skill well. Something else I also loved about what it means when a man falls from the sky is that The stories are short and snappy, like a flash of electricity. The stories are short but emotionally complex and layered. They hold an explosive power like dynamite. Like boom boom pow. I mentioned in episode 2 of the Misty Bloom Book Club the observational skills that a writer must possess and the reason it matters is because life is the ultimate inspiration for any writer. Now in this book on page 61 in the story titled light there's a sentence I thought was just so profound and I'll read it to you. " this starts another argument between husband and wife, mild at first, but then it peppers and there is this thing that distance does where it subtracts warmth and context and history and each finds that they're arguing with a stranger." I'm not going to interpret the meaning of this sentence for you. All I'll say is that the sentence is stellar because it does show off the author's observational skills, how she deconstructs the anatomy of an marital argument but what is most important here is the ability to not only observe but to translate the moment and articulate it into seemingly effortless wisdom. So great job, Lesley Nneka Arimah. I often mention how metaphors are effective tools for great storytelling so there's this line on page 61 that reads "the girl holds a grudge as well as she holds water in her fist". A lesser author could have easily written the girl was terrible at holding grudges but that would not have come off as commonplace and much less impactful. Also this metaphor of a fistful of water or lack thereof conjured up an image, that was effective in describing the girl's carefree temperament, and also read as original. The economy of sentences is not just important for its own sake but it also forces the reader to participate within the story so that it feels more immediate and really captures your attention and emotions. Check out this line from page 71 on the fifth story Second Chances so I'll read this so it starts out by saying, "after my mother died, I spent a few months in a place where they spooned food and medication into me." The reason I select the sentence is because it just very sparsely talks about being in this facility because obviously if you are being spooned food and medication it's some sort of facility where a third party is doing these things to you most likely a medical professional but I think this an an excellent example of participating with the prose so even though the sentence says enough it doesn't say a lot so as a reader, I'm forced here to fill in the blanks here with you know the medical professional, with it being a facility. I am forced to generate emotions associated with someone who needed to be in a facility because of the tragic passing of a parent, someone who needed to be spoon-fed because circumstances have left them unable to do it for themselves. Therefore the tragedy feels heavier because sufficient little is said which forces me to participate in the story by filling in the blanks with my own imagination and feelings about the situation. The 6th story, Windfalls was crushing. It is written in the second person. and by second person I mean you. I've never been convinced that writing in the second person had any sort of merit whatsoever. I've been adamant against any writer ever exploring writing prose using the second person. I've never thought of it as a sustainable way of telling a complete story but this story, windfalls, and Lesley Nneka Arimah have convinced me otherwise. However I still have to say that in using the second person, you, I never got to know the characters names. And I think putting a name to someone helps you feel like you're connected in a way to that person. And without having a name of any of the characters I felt a certain loss. But I also don't know if that was intentional by the writer. Finally I'm gonna end what I loved about What It Means When A Man Falls From The Sky by talking about my favorite story in the book titled what is a volcano. And I think I like it because it's a folktale, it's very multi-layered has many hidden meanings, packed full of wisdom, imagination, profundity, and I think this is the one story where I felt like the author let herself go and and relaxed on the page. And the best part? It does have a great resolution. So those are the main elements of what I loved about What It Means When A Man Falls From The Sky. But before I tell you what I liked much less about this short story collection, here is a quick message from my sponsor. Don’t go anywhere. Welcome back to the Misty Bloom Book Club. thanks for staying with me. Without further ado, let’s talk about what I liked less about What It Means When A Man Falls From The Sky by Lesley Nneka Arimah. In Wild, the third story, the main character has a Lebanese friend named Leila which I kind of thought in the manner of naming conventions, was kind of lazy. Really? This is like the hundred thousandth Arab female character in fiction named Leila? Come on! I also think it did a disservice to the character because Leila is such a common name that non-arab artists tend to use in their art that it did a disservice to who Leila could be. Giving her such a common name made her feel basic and since the short story format doesn't leave enough room for character development it made Leila feel one dimensional. Imagine the English equivalent of a character named Jane, that you barely get to know. With little room for character development, you would subconsciously ascribe Jane with flat, one note, basic girl next door characteristics. I think this is a good tip for new or aspiring writers is to put a lot of thought into how you name your characters. You cannot pretend that when you see a person's name you don't ascribe a set of traits or characteristics or make assumptions about that person even without meeting them. There's a reason for naming Mother of Dragons Daenerys Targaryen versus Mary Ellen Because of how much Lesley Nneka Arimah's sentences shone it really contrasted when other sentences weren't quite as good. But honestly there were veral few examples of not so great sentences and I believe in a lesser author these examples wouldn't matter at all but seeing what this writer is capable of, the lesser sentences. For example a sentence on page 61 reads, " but the space between mother and daughter is widened to hold something cautious, and elephants of mistrust and awkwardness." I didn't at all care for this sentence. Elephants as metaphors for vastness and space is so overdone and overused and I just was disappointed to see it. I mean I realize there are very few examples of things that exist in nature that are big and can be used to describe space and distance but I think also think that Lesley Nneka Arimah didn't use elephant in a particularly original or fresh way. But honestly it feels like I'm nitpicking because this is only one average sentence out of a million other incredible sentences. Shortly after this, a really beautiful sentence follows and it reads, "she strings his virtues out like Christmas lights" how freaking magical and redeeming is that? The writing is so polished, feels like MFA in Fiction writing type work. And for those who don't know what an MFA is, it is a Master's in Fine Arts. Basically an advanced degree for how to be a fiction writer. To me this book appears to be the product of intense work shopping. When A Man Falls From The Sky is very clean, refined. it's almost surgically precise, clinical. There's no frayed edges there's no rawness, no feeling of letting loose on the page. Its been work shopped to perfection. And for this reason the book as a whole does not feel approachable. So it's kind of like when you polish silver and it's shiny and perfect. So you don't want to touch it you don't want to leave fingerprints or scuff marks. You admire from a distance. So in that vein this book does not feel approachable. It left me with a very interesting mixed feeling. on one hand I think the stories definitely do have mass appeal. There’s a mix of middle class and upper as well as working class characters. However, the surgically precise writing created a little bit of distance between writer and reader. So even when earlier I would say things like I found a story to be sad or moving or whatever, I still feel like the emotions that Lesley Nneka Arimah's writing generated felt a little bit more cerebral than deeply heartfelt. Like the emotions didn't stay with me. they didn't last but I also don't know if that's a factor of the short story format where the reader doesn't get to linger with the characters enough in order to empathize with them in a fuller more complete way. You only get to meet short story characters in passing and so your emotions are also shortlived. So think about how certain characters become fixtures in your life. And I'll use an extreme example. Harry Potter. And the reason Harry Potter is so well loved is because we've spent years knowing and empathising with Harry Potter. With a short story which is on the very opposite end of the spectrum from Harry Potter you're spending very little time with the characters so it's a challenge for the reader to feel invested in any meaningful way. In spite of that though, I still think just the ability to elicit any type of emotion whether cerebral or heartfelt from a reader in only 10 to 15 pages is still pretty exceptional and very difficult to do. So big props to Lesley Nneka Arimah The story I liked the least was actually the title story, What It Means When A Man Falls From The Sky. It's a futuristic, science fiction story that's also a deconstruction of grief. Grief as in sadness sorrow mourning. This story holds an interesting concept of grief eating. However I didn't find it particularly original for a scifi futuristic type story because it's a sort of play of of the old Welsh custom of sin eating, where a person would eat the sins of a newly deceased person or in other words take on the sins of a recently deceased person. Look it up on Google if you haven't heard of it it's pretty fascinating. And what it means when a man falls from the sky it's basically a rip off of sin eating where in this story it is grief eating. Yeah I was kind of cool but not that interesting. But I didn't connect to it on an emotional or even intellectual level because I am not a huge consumer of science diction anyway so it totally makes sense why I didn't connect with this particular story. I didn't hate it but I didn't love it either. I was indifferent and kinda bored. Its like the title track of a musician's album. You go in wanting to love the title track of an album because the musician obviously does. Otherwise they wouldn't name their entire album after the title track. And the title track is supposed to be this crowning glory of the entire album. Similarly, what it means when a man falls from the sky is in my opinion, supposed to be the pinnacle story you know. So, when you don't connect with the title track or the title story in this case it's kind of disappointing. The writing was good, but the story fell super flat for me. So, there you go, those are the parts of the book that I didn’t like quite as much. As you can see, it’s a spectacular book and the weaknesses I talked about are still pretty superior. But anyway, I gotta wrap this up. So I wanna do my fun guessing game of what I think Lesley Nneka Arimah is like in real life. And close out with my final thoughts but before I do, here is a quick message from my sponsor. Don’t go anywhere. Welcome back to the Misty Bloom Book Club. thanks for staying with me. So, here is what I think this author’s personality may be like. I'm gonna guess that Lesley Nneka Arimah is a perfectionist. However, I would guess that she is perhaps not necessarily interested in wanting to be the best BUT is more interested in giving the best that she is capable of. That's my first thing. The second is that I think she's one of those people that's been writing since she was a child and perhaps feels most comfortable expressing herself through writing. Like writing is her comfort zone, safe space, that kind of thing. If you know Lesley Nneka Arimah, let me know if I'm right on target or completely missed the mark. Final thoughts, I'm so impressed with the economy and refinement of Lesley Nneka Arimah's wordsmithing. But I also acknowledge that economy is well suited to the short story format. So I'd be up for checking out what she does with the longer-form narrative like a novel. If she will retain her signature style or will approach a long form novel differently. I'm definitely curious. Let me know what you think of What It Means When A Man Falls From The Sky.

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