A strong collection
4 stars
This collection of short stories includes the Commonwealth Short Story Prize 2014 winner, Let's Tell This Story Properly. I loved how all the tales overlap by way of their country settings, and also in other more subtle ways such as shared specific locations and characters. It reminded me of From An-Other Land by Tanushree Ghosh and helped to reinforce the idea of the Ugandan diaspora being connected. Having the British parts of the stories take place in Manchester appealed to me because it makes a refreshing change to literarily explore British cities other than London!
I wasn't so keen on the shory about the two dogs, but otherwise I enjoyed reading Manchester Happened. Makumbi explores different aspects of Ugandan immigration to Britain from the 1950s until the present day. Through these insights into the characters' lives I was able to view British society from the other side of the lens, …
This collection of short stories includes the Commonwealth Short Story Prize 2014 winner, Let's Tell This Story Properly. I loved how all the tales overlap by way of their country settings, and also in other more subtle ways such as shared specific locations and characters. It reminded me of From An-Other Land by Tanushree Ghosh and helped to reinforce the idea of the Ugandan diaspora being connected. Having the British parts of the stories take place in Manchester appealed to me because it makes a refreshing change to literarily explore British cities other than London!
I wasn't so keen on the shory about the two dogs, but otherwise I enjoyed reading Manchester Happened. Makumbi explores different aspects of Ugandan immigration to Britain from the 1950s until the present day. Through these insights into the characters' lives I was able to view British society from the other side of the lens, so to speak, sometimes in a positive way but unfortunately mostly in the negative. Careless comments and attitudes abound. That said, Manchester Happened didn't come across to me as an angry demand for change. In fact its title is taken from an almost-weary comment in one of the stories where a character sums up her experience with the phrase 'Manchester happened'.
