NEED: Stories from Africa

Set in Sierra Leone during the final year before the gruesome civil war of the 1990s, this bleak collection of nine short stories draws on the author's experiences as a development worker and demonstrates a keen eye for place. Certain passages convey, in sharp detail, what it is to live in a West African landscape. "A trail from the village to the rain forest skirted the clearing... a barefoot man would pass down the trail from the hills with a log on his head and a cutlass in his hand." A common thread throughout these tales is, as the title suggests, need. The poverty in Sierra Leone is unimaginable by Western standards, as "Mister Henry's Trousers" and "Foday" make plain. But there are other, equally urgent forces at work: guilt, despair, resignation. The author emphasizes the dilemmas faced by white expatriates, particularly men who have been in Sierra Leone for some time. While this allows for a coherent view of Leonian society, it also renders the stories overly similar to one another. White men, prone to feelings of helplessness and racial guilt, are regularly embroiled in deep misunderstandings—sexual, professional and otherwise—with black Sierra Leonians. Africans, more often than not, end up harmed or killed as a result. Despite the restricted perspective, these are evocative, nuanced, tightly written stories. (Dec.)