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caseythecanadianlesbrarian's review
3.0
Shani Mootoo is one of my favourite writers, but despite having devoured almost all of her fiction, until recently I had yet to read her very first book, a collection of short stories called Out on Main Street that was published way back in 1993 (I was only 8 years old!). It’s one of the books that I’ve had a copy of for a while, but had never gotten around to reading.
So, Out on Main Street is definitely an uneven collection: it feels like someone’s first book, for better or for worse. It’s not bad by any means, but it’s not amazing either. For anyone who’s new to her work, I would suggest starting with another one of her books, the amazing Cereus Blooms at Night—her first novel—or her most recent, Moving Forward Sideways Like a Crab. Both showcase Mootoo’s talent much better than this book, where you can only see seeds of what makes Mootoo presently a really fantastic writer. Mootoo is definitely testing the waters and getting her sea legs, as you might say, in this book of short stories. A few of the pieces fell kind of flat for me: they didn’t feel fully formed, or felt like they were missing something.
That doesn’t mean, however, that there weren’t some standout stories in Out on Main Street. In particular, the title story is great. Written in an Indo-Trinidadian dialect, as if right out of the mouth of the narrator, “Out on Main Street” of course refers to “out” in more than one way. It packs a lot into a small space, investigating the cross-overs of privilege and oppression and intersectionality way before that term was current. Our precocious protagonist is a butch Indo-Trinidadian woman out in Vancouver’s little India with her femme girlfriend. Alliances and enemies are made and remade inside an Indian sweet shop, the women quickly turning from outsiders to allies to outsiders again...
See the full review here: http://wp.me/p2tLy0-pr
So, Out on Main Street is definitely an uneven collection: it feels like someone’s first book, for better or for worse. It’s not bad by any means, but it’s not amazing either. For anyone who’s new to her work, I would suggest starting with another one of her books, the amazing Cereus Blooms at Night—her first novel—or her most recent, Moving Forward Sideways Like a Crab. Both showcase Mootoo’s talent much better than this book, where you can only see seeds of what makes Mootoo presently a really fantastic writer. Mootoo is definitely testing the waters and getting her sea legs, as you might say, in this book of short stories. A few of the pieces fell kind of flat for me: they didn’t feel fully formed, or felt like they were missing something.
That doesn’t mean, however, that there weren’t some standout stories in Out on Main Street. In particular, the title story is great. Written in an Indo-Trinidadian dialect, as if right out of the mouth of the narrator, “Out on Main Street” of course refers to “out” in more than one way. It packs a lot into a small space, investigating the cross-overs of privilege and oppression and intersectionality way before that term was current. Our precocious protagonist is a butch Indo-Trinidadian woman out in Vancouver’s little India with her femme girlfriend. Alliances and enemies are made and remade inside an Indian sweet shop, the women quickly turning from outsiders to allies to outsiders again...
See the full review here: http://wp.me/p2tLy0-pr
tina94's review
funny
informative
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Misogyny
Moderate: Cultural appropriation, Murder, Domestic abuse, and Sexual violence
catherinefisher55's review
3.0
A 1993 collection of short stories by then Vancouver author Shani Mootoo (who now lives in Toronto). It was put out by Vancouver's Press Gang Publishers. Stylewise, I thought "Nocturnals" was the most interesting story.
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