The book explores the lives of struggling tenants in a Harlem apartment building which highlights their challenges dreams and conflicts. I found the writing style difficult to engage with, particularly with the southern dialect which just wasn't to my taste. Despite my interest in the characters and their stories, the narrative style made it hard for me to finish.

This was an interesting 'anthology' of stories. Although it's not really an anthology as the stories all link together somehow. Each story is about or from the point of view of a tenant of the same building. They all share experiences, knowledge, and (in some cases) friendship throughout the entire set of stories.

Overall the stories are very sad. This is a low income building with a lot of barely hanging on, or already two steps into being evicted folks. That's not to say it isn't without its happy moments, as it does have some; but overall do not expect an uplifting set of stories here.

My favourite characters POVs we see include: a single mother with an autistic child and an elderly POC 'Mama' who faces constant, relentless discrimination regarding her skin tone, intelligence, and more. The overall stories themselves are very unique as their POV's are written in the vernacular you would expect from that specific person (yes including the typos of a child). Therefore you can't really get bored as by the time you might be tired of someone's narrative it's time for another one to come into play.

This set of stories does require some patience however. It's not obvious through the first 7 stories that they are actually going to tangibly connect in a meaningful way. It's story 8, the last, that really brings the whole set together. It's well worth the payoff in my opinion! It's a definite tear jerker, and I usually hate those books, so it's a pretty big compliment from me that I thought it was well done. I wouldn't read it again, except maybe for a book club or to discuss with a friend who might benefit from the stories; but I'm glad to have read it this once.

Please note: I received an eARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. This is an honest and unbiased review.

A tender, voyeuristic, nuanced look at cultural inequality.

How did the book make me feel/think?

These are complex thoughts to right (write).

Here goes:

On the one hand, life dealt me an unfair advantage because of my ancestry DNA.

On the other, they shrouded my family in secrecy, as I was a baby born to an unwed mother—in a horrible place—where women were sent to be fixed. A reality that has haunted me for 62 years.

Despite my less-than-auspicious beginnings and the flawed cards dealt my family, leading to a lifelong struggle, it wasn’t laced with the outrageous disadvantage of being born black.

I must quickly shout out: being born black is not a disadvantage but for those of my flawed ilk whose shortcomings have them scratching and clawing to keep the unfair advantage do, to, well, disease the world, disgustingly using it to give themselves a leg up.

Stories from the Tenants Downstairs is a voyeuristic, nuanced look into a world filled with tenderness, struggle, growth, fear, and the unbelievable willpower of those who’ve been held down and shackled by the sickness of unfettered capitalism.

Fofana delivers a must-read for anyone willing to step outside their skin and open their hearts + eyes. Just because you may have been dealt a strong hand, it is important to understand that most people are doing their best, regardless of what your ancestors did.

WRITTEN: 21 July 2022

I believe that fiction is essential in shaping our future for the better (one reason why I review books). One reason is that it helps us see beyond our privilege, so that we can understand the challenges that face us, collectively, and use said privilege to better our society.

Sidik Fofana’s book is such a book. Its eight stories from tenants in the same housing complex in Harlem paint a beautiful, poignant, heartbreaking, and difficult portrait of what life can be like for those whose housing situation is insecure. I deeply appreciated how each chapter is written in the POV, voice, and dialect of the person sharing their story, and how each story overlaps with all the others.

Throughout my read, I kept thinking of the people who are left homeless at the beginning of July every year here in Quebec (1 July is our unofficial moving day); it saddens and angers me that housing isn’t considered a basic human right protected from the greedy who only want to generate increasing profits and obscene amounts of wealth. The situation is especially bad when it comes to vulnerable populations finding decent housing. I was reminded, reading Fofana’s book, of stories shared by some acquaintances about the terrible conditions of their rentals and the way they were treated by slumlords.

While it’s exhausting sometimes to have to think about all the things that need to get fixed in our society, it’s important to remember that these issues exist, and act on them according to our own capacity. This book is a must read for everyone who has the luxury of housing security, and hopefully will confirm you in whatever way you are contributing to the betterment of society.

Have you ever read a book that you just cannot relate and left you feeling frustrated to the point that you want to give up and DNF but you still carry on because somehow you knew that the book is sending an important message?!?! Whew!😅

Stories from the Tenants Downstairs by Sidik Fofana is THAT book for me! I can’t say that I enjoyed all the short stories in this book. Most of the characters were unrelatable and unlikable. I think I only liked Kandese from The Young Entrepreneurs of Miss Bristol’s Front Porch, and even that did not end in a good way.😩 The stories were quite painful to read but certainly were an eye-opener for me. Sometimes I felt that there’s hope for the characters, but then something will prevent them from reaching their dreams or improving their lives either because of unfortunate circumstances or because of their own doing. I find myself shaking my head a lot of times. I truly had a hard time reading this book but I persisted because I knew these uncomfortable stories are opportunities for me to learn and be educated. Thank you Simon & Schuster Canada and netgalley for providing me the eGalley of this book in exchange for my honest opinion. This book was launched early this month and I sure hope this book will reach a lot of people.💕

Written in AAVE, this anthology of short stories has a powerful premise. However, I am not a fan of books written in dialect (I have DNFed several other books that were written in a Southern US accent with phonetic spelling) so I was unable to get past that and enjoy the messaging. This is nothing against the writer, it is just not the style for me. 5 stars for DNF as I cannot comment on the overall quality.

Stories from the Tenants Downstairs by Sidik Fofana is a series of short stories about men and women living in an apartment in NYC struggling to make rent, stay safe and survive. The stories are interconnected since all of the characters live in the same building but each story offers different perspectives on the challenges they face.

Unfortunately, the writing style really bothered me. First, there was a significant number of spelling and grammar errors due to colloquialism. There were a lot of words spelt incorrectly or substituted with another word that sounds similar but does not have the same meaning. I get what the author was trying to do, but it made it challenging to read and comprehend. Additionally, there was no proper formatting for dialogue, and a lot of 1 sentence paragraphs. It was at times hard to know if the main characters were describing a situation or actually having a conversation with someone else. It just took a lot of details away from the story and I think some of the ideas were lost due to my concentration being focused on deciphering what the author was trying to say.

I think that the themes and storylines are really interesting and that many people will really enjoy this book when it is published. If you enjoy interconnected short stories, fictional stories about low income areas and don't mind some grammar issues, I think this is definitely a great book for you! Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for giving me the opportunity to read and review an advance copy of this novel!

A really lovely short story collection that can be reminiscent of any underprivileged community in a neighbourhood undergoing gentrification. Each short story was about a different person who is a tenant of Banneker Homes. However since they all live in the same building, their stories connect or they know each other in some way or another. The rent prices in Banneker Homes is threatening to go up and people who are behind and have been behind on their rent are threatened to be kicked out. A group of women from the building are protesting the rising rent, while others are going about their daily lives just trying to survive.
Fofana wrote these stories with humour and made you come to care about these characters and their quirks. The stories I especially loved included Swan's mum who works at the school with the racist white teacher (as a teacher I thought this was hilarious), and the story about the gentleman who plays chess outside of the restaurant and the community rallying together in his name - even though he doesn't want them to.

I absolutely loved this book! I found it hard to put down. I highly recommend reading it! You won’t be disappointed.