Title: Shirley from a Small Place
Author: Alexia Arthurs
In: How to Love a Jamaican (Alexia Arthurs)
Rating Out of 5: 4 (Really good read!)
My Bookshelves: Contemporary
Pace: Slow
Format: Short story
Publisher: Picador
Year: 2018

Stories featuring fame and the famous seem to  e finding themselves ra on my shelves quite a bit at the moment. I’m not sure if I’m just noticing it, or they are genuinely more common in my selections right now, but it’s definitely interesting. Which brings me to this review. For all of the fame featured tales, this is the only one that deals with immigrants and fame, the ways that the disjunct between a home country is so vast and sometimes difficult to connect.

Shirley’s tale is kind of sad, and very intense. There’s a whole facet of aspects to her life that make you sad. But then there’s a slew of moments that you feel she has bought upon herself. It’s kind of tragic and definitely hurt my heart a little bit.

Ultimately though, this story is about the decision to be happy. Which, realistically, is a decision. You can’t control what life throws your way. But you can control how you view it and how you decide to feel about things.

Image source: Goodreads