Hail Mary, Funmi Fetto (Review by Stacey Lorenson)

Funmi Fetto has crafted nine soul provoking short stories featuring Nigerian women in pursuit of reincarnating their lives.Problems develop when each woman has been cruelly dismissed or trivialized. The characters chronicle oppressive situations that require feminine ingenuity to overcome crippling cultural norms. Some improve their circumstance; others are not so lucky. I appreciated Fetto’s nod to reality by shunning cliched story endings. These sharply written narratives of African women’s diaspora are sewn together by themes of religious hypocrisy, domestic abuse, identity, classism, and patriarchal double standards. The culmination of these haunting stories divulge intimate minutia that defines feminine connection to nature, their communities,and themselves. Hail Mary is an emotional, reflective journey into the deepest desires of women searching to realize unmet dreams and search for kindness everyone deserves, regardless of sex, class or religion. These stories represent explorations into the internal psyche of women who sacrifice, hope, dream and love. This isFunmi Fetto’s first work of fiction. I look forward to her next.