Call and Response

by Gothataone Moeng

Richly drawn stories about the lives of ordinary families in contemporary Botswana as they navigate relationships, tradition and caretaking in a rapidly changing world.

A young widow adheres to the expectations of wearing mourning clothes for nearly a year, though she's unsure what the traditions mean or whether she is ready to meet the world without their protection. An older sister returns home from a confusing time in America, only to explain at every turn why she's left the land of opportunity. A younger sister hides her sexual exploits from her family, while her older brother openly flaunts his infidelity.

The stories collected in Call and Response are strongly anchored in place - in the village of Serowe, where the author is from, and in Gaborone, the capital city of Botswana - charting the emotional journeys of women seeking love and opportunity beyond the barriers of custom and circumstance.

Gothataone Moeng is part of a new generation of writers coming out of Africa whose voices are ready to explode onto the literary scene. In the tradition of writers like Chimamanda Adiche and Jhumpa Lahiri, she offers us insight into communities, experiences and landscapes through stories that are cinematic in their sweep, with unforgettable female protagonists.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Africa, Botswana, African Literature, Anthologies, Audiobook

304 pages, Hardcover

First published February 7, 2023

About the author

Gothataone Moeng was born in Serowe, Botswana. She was a Wallace Stegner Fellow in Fiction, a Summer Workshop scholar at Tin House, and an Emerging Writer Fellow at A Public Space. Her writing has appeared or is forthcoming in American Short Fiction, One Story, Virginia Quarterly Review, A Public Space, Ploughshares and Oxford American. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Mississippi.

Reviews

[BookOfCinz · Rating 2 out of 5]

Bustling with life, energy, we meet fresh characters from contemporary Botswana teaching us about love, loss, family, rejection and redemption.

Gothataone Moeng’s Call and Response is a debut collection of nine short stories that explores life in contemporary Botswana. We meet very ordinary Botswanans who are navigating loss, love, family life, society’s expectation and what it means to be a part of a community.
Moeng writing is inviting, vivid and very engaging. There is a bit of mystery that she starts with for each story that you can’t help but want to solve and be a part of. Majority of the protagonist are women reinventing themselves or trying to not break under tradition and society’s expectation.

Of the nine stories there are a few that stood out to me, A GOOD GIRL who tries to be the good girl for her family, hides all the things she thinks is bad while her brother is doing the opposite. In Botalaote we meet a very young widow who is breaking under the pressure of observing tradition to make sure her husband death is honoured. SMALL WONDERS we find out the meaning of community and desires.

Honestly, this is what I would call a very solid collection of short stories. The author flexes her writing muscles but not too much, she tries, but not too hard and we are transported to Gaborone in Botswana where we meet a colorful, unforgettable cast. I cannot wait to see what she writes next.

[Ming · Rating 3 out of 5]

My finding this title is a testament to GR. A “friend” added it or read it. And seeing that led me to read it.

This is my first title by a Botswana author. I enjoyed these short stories—they felt like ethnography via fiction. I learned that to respectfully address elders you use the plural and that a colonial remnant was the honorific for someone who was accomplished as “White.”

“Early Life and Education” was the longest of the bunch and my favorite. I liked “Good Girl,”“Homing,” and “Small Wonders.”

I thought the endings were generally too mild or wimpy… almost as if they were incomplete. I don’t know if this was my not liking this style or more my preference for more impactful endings.

I was glad to see that the author is working on a novel. I’d be curious to see what it’s about. That format may be better suited to her writing style. But again, I very much appreciate the setting of Botswana and learning about their culture and practices.

[Aisha (thatothernigeriangirl) · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this one! Admittedly, many of the stories didn’t have conclusive endings that I’d have liked, but the caliber of Moeng’s writing made up for that.

Phew! Can she write?! I had to keep reminding that myself that this was a debut collection. I loved all the women in these stories — in all their wrongs and rights. I also learnt a lot about Botswana; its many droughts, especially the one just after its independence; its cultures of marriage, burying the dead, farming and cattle rearing; also its tribalism.

I also loved the only story with a male MC — Early Life and Education. It’s the longest and touches on many themes, most notably how misogyny is learnt, even when a person is supposed to buoyed by years of living around (and loving) his womenfolk.

[Crystal]

DNF after the 1st story.

I really wanted to like this short story collection but the protagonist of the first story othering her disabled/dying aunt by referring to her as 'the patient' and shunning her hit a little too close to home. While I question the idea of adults having a teenager doing caregiving acting like the aunt is less than human and then only having her humanity returned in death felt like such a stereotypical idea of disability. I'm not in the mood.

[Care · Rating 2 out of 5]

4 star writing
2 star narratives

[Lauren Fanella · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5⭐️

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I realised that I had picked up a book of short stories I very nearly put it to the bottom of my to-read pile, I am so glad I didn't. The stories were both entertaining and fascinating. I learned so much about the people of Botswana, their cultures and heritage. The stories were thought provoking and left me wanting to read more stories based in this country. Call and Response is fully deserved of its five stars and I would highly recommend to fellow readers.

[2TReads · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed the ways in which women were central in these stories, the vulnerable, the unsure, the brave, the questioning, and the unlikable. They were here searching for their places in society, finding ways to avoid or escape the constraints which are placed on them because they are women. I was amused and dismayed and irritated and I liked it.

[Mihiret · Rating 5 out of 5]

These are powerful, precise stories, set in Botswana. The collection is well-named, because there are multiple call and response rhythms running throughout all the stories--between the narrators and their past selves, between Serowe and much larger Gaborone and between Botswana and America, between traditional patterns and modern ones, and finally between the narrators and the reader, who is often asked to "answer" the story to fill in its gaps and assess its meaning as the narrators themselves are still figuring it all out. The stories are realistic, but often feature narrators who are as uncertain of where the story is headed as the reader is; the results are often surprising but feel inevitable. They are the kinds of stories which echo in the reader for days, rumbling and bumping around, as the full depth comes only gradually to the surface--I found I had to space them out while reading, so they had room to expand.

My favorite story was the story of the young widow who is avoiding her family because it is time to part with her dead husband's clothes and remove her own traditional mourning outfit (clothing that many are uncomfortable with her wearing in the first place) because even the rituals are not providing a framework for her grief. But all of these stories are interesting, carefully described, and memorable. I highly recommend them.

Thanks to the publisher, author, and Netgalley for the EARC I received in return for an honest review.

[Em · Rating 4 out of 5]

Call and Response by Gothataone Moeng is a collection of nine short stories set in the village of Serowe where the author is from in Botswana. Moeng manages to show readers the complexities existent in the lives of the women from her village from multiple perspectives and vantage points. Each story is unique and stands on its own while also sharing important aspects of culture, tradition, and folklore from the city of Gaborone.

While I enjoyed each story for different reasons, I was struck by Early Life and Education which tells the story of a young boy, Lerako, who is raised by his grandmother after his neglectful mother remarries and leaves him to her care. Eventually his grandmother passes away and he is left within the care of an uncle resulting in a major shift in his development. This story did an impactful job of critiquing the coming of age experience of boys in the culture and also provided more cultural context for some of the pressures boys are expected to manage and endure before they've fully matured. In many ways I found this story to anchor the others that centered the experiences of women navigating their own oppression due to very specific gender roles in society.

This was a powerful debut that I will surely read again! Thank you to the author and publisher for the e-arc copy!

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wasn't super engaged plot-wise, but the world Moeng sets her stories in is very interesting and new to me. Additionally, her writing is beautiful - her craft of sentence construction and use of language is inspiring. Definitely worth checking out.

[SarahJayne · Rating 2 out of 5]

I picked up this book a year ago and recently realized it was a collection of short stories. I immersed myself in Botswana culture, language, and traditions unknowingly. I could relate to many characters and their POV’s on certain stances. A grand theme of this book was Sonder especially in the brief stories. My favorite story would have to be Early Life and Education because it went in-depth and touched on many interesting topics.

I was dismayed when the stories ended just as is with no resolution or conclusive ending and most of these stories were boring with no plot or climax. I believe most, if not, all stories had a melancholic and somber tone. I could tell this was a debut of some sort, at times the writing confused me when it came to timelines, foreign language (usually authors will have some form of reference), syntax. What saved this book for me was that the writing was unique in its own way and exquisite majority of the time, expanding my vocab, and did a great job at articulation.

[cat · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved these short stories set in Botswana- and especially Small Wonders and Bodies, which were standouts for me. The first story didn't grab me but as I continued I became invested in all of the characters in her progressively engaging stories. Excited to see what comes next from this author!

[Sara G · Rating 4 out of 5]

The writing is so beautiful, these stories all really worked for me.

[Ella Crabtree · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 round up… The top reviews of this book are kind of bad but I feel like it’s just finding the wrong audience tbh. extraordinarily well written short stories. “Botalaote” “Dark Matter” “Small Wonders” and “Homing” were my favorites. skip if you dislike lit fic or deliberately slow pacing

[Darkowaa · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.9 stars. Will review this after bookclub today!

[Amber · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have mixed feeling about this book. As with most short story collections, there are some stories that I liked and some that I didn’t. The overall tone of the book was quite cohesive in its quiet realism. However because of that I think a lot of the stories sort of blend into each other. But the overall themes of postcolonial rehabilitation, religion, women in the cultures of Botswana, race and tribalism were interesting and educational and enlightening.
I chose this book to read as my book for Botswana in my read around the world challenge.
56/197 countries read

Writing style: 3
Enjoyment: 3
Emotional impact: 4
Educational value: 4
=3.5

[ಥ_ಥ · Rating 2 out of 5]

Set in Botswana, particularly in the author's hometown of Serowe and the capital, Gaborone, these stories delve into the intricate lives of women. The author's adept use of idiomatic phrases adds a rich texture to the prose, vividly portraying the characters' daily struggles and profound existential reflections. Despite the impeccable writing, I found it challenging to invest in the stories personally. While the exploration of characters' lives is praiseworthy, I couldn't help but feel that these narratives might have been more impactful as novellas rather than short stories.

[Ranti · Rating 4 out of 5]

A short story collection with young female protagonists, set between the Botswana capital, Gaborone and the village of Serowe. They’re discovering themselves outside their family homes, choosing which traditions to hold onto & which ones to let go of.

I looooved these stories. The title ‘Call & Response’ is reflected in the writing style - the breadcrumb clues throughout the characters’ stories, the unanswered questions gradually revealed as the plots develop.

4.25⭐️

[Rosh (read in the A.M.)]

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I gave up at 45% because I simply could not will myself to care about anything that was happening. I didn't understand the point of any of the stories I did finish so I'm conviced that this isn't the collection for me. Apparently I prefer my shortstories with a speculative element. Let me just stay in my lane.

[D. Adiba]

It took me several weeks to get through these short stories, and I am so glad that I took the time to finish. By far, my favourite is the epic "Early Life and Education", which could have been a novel in its own right. Page 248 boasts a powerful colloquy on colonialism that is masterfully written and emphasizes my similar opinion on the matter.

Gothataone is an exceptionally gifted writer. I look forward to reading more from her about the inhabitants of Botswana.

[Jaleesa | Reading Beyond the Book Cover · Rating 3 out of 5]

Imbued with emotion and reflection, Call and Response will supply readers with a front-row seat into Batswana life. In 9 beautifully written, self-revelatory stories, we experience the inner turmoil and contradictions of embracing cultural traditions in post-colonial Botswana, inevitable shifts and changes in shared bonds between people, coming of age, navigating familial expectations, and the all too familiar event and memories of homecoming.

Be prepared to traverse around cities of Botswana, and witness the characters’ revelations of themselves as they answer their call.

I recommend this short story collection and rate it a 3.25. The writing is poignant and thought-provoking. That is what I most enjoyed about it. Despite my enjoyment of Moeng’s writing, the pacing of the stories did not compel me to reach for the book as much as I expected to. It would have been a perfect fit for me if the calling were stronger.

I suggest this book to readers who are seeking a slower-paced collection of stories, centered around mostly female characters.

Many thanks to Viking, Gothataone Moeng, and NetGalley for an Advanced Review Copy in exchange for an honest review. My review/reaction is voluntary, all thoughts are mine and unbiased, and receiving the Advanced Review Copy does not influence my rating and/or recommendation.

Full Review Here: https://readingbeyondthebookcover.com...

[Alison Hardtmann · Rating 4 out of 5]

I still go into the city sometimes. When it cannot be avoided, I, as we used to say, very-nice myself. I powder my face, paint my lips red, and subdue my body into skintight jeans. I brace myself for the city center and its deceptions.

The stories that make up this collection are all set in Botswana, most in the town of Serowe, but also in the Capitol city of Gabarone. Most are coming-of-age stories, mostly following young women as they try to find their way in a world sandwiched between traditional expectations and modern aspirations. The author grew up in Serowe, where she currently lives, but she attended university in the US and this collection is written with its western audience in mind.

Every winter, Mrs. Botho Kennekae's husband took time off from his driving job in the city and spent three weeks at the cattle-post, where he did whatever men did there--presumably off the softness they withheld from everyone to their cattle, for the cattle were the great loves of their lives, so beloved the men called them wet-nosed gods, so beloved the men agreed: without cattle, a man pined and lost his sleep; still, having cattle, a man fretted and lost his sleep.

Moeng writes well, but where she shines is in her character studies. From an earnest young man trying to avoid any sinful activity, to a lonely married woman who may not have told her family the truth about her life in Gabarone, all of Moeng's characters are wonderfully complex and full of life. I really enjoyed this peek into a place I know very little about.

[Zibby Owens · Rating 5 out of 5]

Call and Response is a collection of nine short stories set in Botswana, taking place mainly between the village of Serowe and the capital, Gaborone. The stories center on the lives of women, young and old, as they grapple with modern life in a traditional society that's changing rapidly. These women and these girls have to self-define against the pressures of their duties to their families and communities. There's a push and pull between what they want for their lives and the expectations their families and society place on them.

In these stories, we also explore contemporary Africa, its communities, and the traditions of the author's beautiful home country. The author used hair as a metaphor for self-actualization, especially for Black women. The women share their universal stories and experiences about womanhood and girlhood: dealing with relationship issues, first loves, complex family matters, and reconsidering their choices.

To listen to my interview with the author, go to my podcast at:
https://www.momsdonthavetimetoreadboo...

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

Technically, this is a book of short stories, but only a couple of them correspond to my concept of the genre - an accelerated narrative in a defined time and space. A lot of these books read like condensed novels, literary depictions of a character's lifetime journey with great big chunks left out, or at least summarized in a page or two. It's not the easiest style to read since your expectations are getting thwarted on every other page, but once you get used to it, you appreciate the efficiency.

Okay, enough about form, here's a bit about content:

Most of these stories are about women growing up in Botswana, a country about which I know next to nothing but is depicted in detail so granular that I almost felt patronized, as if Ms. Moeng is more interested in telling white people about her homeland instead of telling a story. But it's just another subversion of genre, using paragraphs to create atmosphere in a format where you might get a one-sentence description, if not a subordinate clause.

Experimenting with form, and not doing it in an obnoxiously clever or obliquely abstract way. Nice work, Ms. Moeng.

[Miki]

This is the first text I've read by Gothataone Moeng, and I have to say that this collection of short stories was underwhelming. I feel awful saying that because I've been looking forward to reading it, but I feel that there are better collections out there.

I am a big fan of short stories, but this collection felt flat: the premise of each story wasn't always evident, or wasn't suitable to shorter fiction; the plot didn't always support the character's development or contain rising or falling action; some stories had an abundance of
characters—too many for a short story; and the prose and themes weren't all that compelling/new/interesting. While I could see the overarching themes in every single one of the stories (thank you for that, Moeng!), I believe that Moeng's writing would be better suited to longer fiction.

If you're not someone who enjoys short stories because the form, features, etc. aren't your thing, then this collection might be for you! However, I can't recommend Call and Response to people who love short stories and short story collections.

[Audiobook, borrowed from library]

[Anna Hawes · Rating 4 out of 5]

My favorite stories were Small Wonders (a young woman dealing with the grief of becoming a widow), Homing (three sisters try to figure out what to do with their aging mother), and Early Life and Education (the longest story and the only one with a male protagonist). Most of the stories were both melancholy and hopeful. They often dealt with themes of tradition vs. modernity, colonialism and its lingering effects, gender roles, and how growing up forces you to think about all of those bigger issues in new ways. The author is from Botswana and includes dialect, traditions, etc without interrupting the story to explain things to readers who may be unfamiliar. I knew nothing of the history of the country and would like to learn more. These stories are not didactic that way but instead gave a taste of the everyday lives of people with some problems unique to that particular place while also reminding that some problems are universal.

[Andrea · Rating 4 out of 5]

“She is home. She went out into the world, vast and mysterious though it was. She had left everything behind. But this is her home, she thinks. These are her people. This is her very own life. The thought fills her with grief.” Gothataone Moeng

A collection of short stories that follow characters through life transitions, people who do or have lived in the rural Botswana town of Serowe. Each story explores from a different angle the characters’ perception of their identity. A widow, a woman returned from the US, a man returned from the UK, a school girl caring for her aunt with HIV, each character must decide where their internal loyalties lie and how much space the world allows them for change and control. Lively but thoughtful, the stories give the reader food for thought without belaboring any one point.

[Tutankhamun18 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some of these stories were fantastic and perfect, others were a bit boring and didn’t do much for me. Overall what stands out is the author’s ability to render characters in a few pages.

My favourite 5 star stories:

��� Small Wonders: fantastic characters, palpable with a hopeful yet disapointed ending which I really liked. About a woman mourning her dead husband.

•Bodies: Explores the mind of an old woman who is alone, but was once beautiful and powerful and to whom men fell at her feet. Great character work.

• Homing: Three sisters deciding who will look after their old mother. Captures the pain around old age and care so well, made my heart go ufff. The burden of being old and its loneliness, so well rendered. Characters and emotions.

I cannot wait to see what this author writes next!

[Sandra The Old Woman in a Van · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you read to explore the world and tangentially experience life through another's perceptions, you will find much to love in Moeng's collection of 9 short stories. These stories tell about the lives and challenges girls and women face in contemporary Botswana. At the same time, they bring forth universal themes of changing cultural norms, finding a balance between autonomy and family responsibilities, and what it means to love. Each story made me stop and think. Each story made me feel a deeper connection to global womanhood. Each story helped me understand the unique cultures that contribute to Botswana as a whole. That's why I read.

NetGalley provided me with an electronic ARC in exchange for a review.