Doreen Baingana

This book is structured as eight short stories which could work as stand-alone pieces (and some have been published in magazines), but they are best read in order as presented here. All of the stories in some way are about Christine and her two older sisters, growing up in Uganda following the regime of Idi Amin.

The stories change perspective, some in the third person, but most in the first person, one as diary entry and another particularly affecting story, as a letter to a former lover. show more Essentially they are coming-of-age stories, but set against a backdrop of unrest, the effects of colonialism and AIDS. Uganda plays an important part in these stories, ironically even in the one that is set in Los Angeles.

Some of the problems faced by the characters here are specific to Africa, but other feelings portrayed should resonate with everyone. This is a wonderful book which I expect to have a lasting effect on me and I'll be keen to read whatever Doreen Baingana writes next show less

A collection of eight linked stories, narrated in turn by three sisters. This book was a delight. The stories got better and better as they went along. Most are set in Uganda (Entebbe or Kampala), with one set in Los Angeles, after Christine moves there. The pictures of family life, education, race relations, HIV/AIDS, the immigrant experience, and the experience of the immigrant moving back home, all added up to a wonderful, diverse collection. Because the main characters in the stories show more were the same, one of the aspects I liked most about the book is what wasn't said--that is, musing on the periods between Story A and Story B. Recommended. show less

As in many short story collections, the quality of writing in Tropical Fish is a little uneven, but for me, the good outweighed the bad. The stories focus on three sisters, Patti, Rosa, and Christine, who grew up in Uganda as it recovered from Idi Amin's dictatorship. Christine is the dominant narrator, and through her eyes, we watch her family deterioriate while each of the girls achieves academic success. These first coming of age stories were the weakest in my opinion -- just as each show more character slogged through adolescence, I dutifully marched through several stories that were readable enough to keep my attention but not quite good enough to leave a lasting impression. Yet, as the girls get older, the story telling matures. I particularly admired the subtle endings that somehow conveyed a moment of change for each character in spite of their seeming simplicity. "Tropical Fish," the story for which the book is titled, is particularly moving in the way it addresses larger issues of race and class while keeping believable, emotionally resonant characters at its core. Most of all, though this is a good book to learn about modern-day Uganda, it is a powerful demonstration of how our common humanity outweighs cultural differences. While conflicts between parents, children, and lovers sometimes took a different form than they might in America, I constantly empathized with the emotions each character experienced. The final story, which allows us to see Uganda through the eyes of a recently returned immigrant, is a perfect coda which allows us to see both the differences between two cultures, and the ways those differences might be reconciled. show less

This is an excellent collection of related coming-of-age stories about three sisters in contemporary Uganda (the aftermath of Idi Amin). Generally, the stories focus on one sister at a time, but a majority of the stories are about Christine, the youngest of the three. We see her as a child running her hands through her mother's costume jewelry and later, at 29, returning home to Uganda after living in the US for seven years. Very well done, I will be interested in what else this author writes.