It Falls Into Place by Phyllis Shand Allfrey is a collection of short stories, many of them set on the island of Dominica, the author’s birthplace. This collection consists of 14 stories, all of which are quite short and colorful. Published in 2004, years after her death, some of the stories have a autobiographical feel to them as they are from a young person’s point of view and have a definite “colonial” feel to them as she expresses her feelings about her identity.

I am not a huge fan of short stories and this book really didn’t change my mind. I prefer to have my characters more developed and a story to slowly unfold rather than a few pages about various perspectives that clash in an attempt to bring about transformations. These particular stories cover a wide range of emotions and subjects which, although interesting, didn’t feel like a cohesive collection. It is obvious that this author had a great talent but her life was difficult and today her work is not as well known as it probably should be. ( )

Allfrey, a white Dominican born into a family of planters/colonial officials in 1908, sounds like she led a fascinating life, growing up in Dominica and then, as a young woman, living in the US and UK for a number of years before returning to Dominica in the 1950s to co-found the Dominica Labour Party, and serving for four years as a government minister.

This collection contains 14 stories published together here for the first time. Most of them are short, vivid episodes, many of which appear to have autobiographical elements, including a couple of childhood episodes which hint at the admiration felt by a quiet girl for the confident, attractive women who break rules. There's also a running theme about exile - sometimes, that is missing the island from a cold, bombed-out Europe, but in other stories you realise the characters are remembering a world which doesn't really exist any more - or which they can't get to, such as one story in which a Dominican woman in New York, who is able to pass as white, makes a one-time-only journey to a West Indian nightclub in Harlem. ( )