“Vignettes on our lives and dreams” by Theresa Mallinson
Mail & Guardian, 02 Aug 2019
You know what they say about judging a book by its cover. But no one ever said anything about judging a book by its name. When a friend presented me with a copy of Antoinette Tidjani Alou’s Tina Shot Me Between the Eyes and Other Stories, it had me at the title.
The opening story, which gives its name to the collection, features an unnamed protagonist reflecting on how and why his marriage went wrong as he lies bleeding to death after his wife Tina’s fatal shot. “In an epiphany of red, I discovered I had gone too far,” he realises. At this point it is too late.
“I am not sure how Tina and I got together in the first place,” he muses. “I do not understand it even now as my life, or rather hers, flashes in front of me.”
Read the full review here…