Come Let Us Sing Anyway

by Leone Ross

From headless schoolgirls, to talking food and threesomes, pretty much anything can happen in these witty, weird and wonderful short stories by Leone Ross.
Ranging from flash fiction to intense psychological drama, magical realism, horror and erotica, these strange, clever, frank and sometimes very funny stories have a serious side too. Carefully crafted over 15 years, they explore unbounded sexualities, a vision of the fluidity of the person, and politics – from the deaths of black people at the hands of the police, to the deep shifts that signal the subtle changes in the nature of capitalism and much more. These stories may sometimes tickle, sometimes shock; but will always engage both the intellect and the heart.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Magical Realism, Contemporary, Anthologies, Race, Literature

190 pages, Paperback

First published June 5, 2017

Reviews

[BookOfCinz · Rating 4 out of 5]

WHOA!!! What a captivating collection of short stories!

Come Let Us Sing Anyway by Leone Ross is a collection of 23 short stories that explores various themes of love, grief, mental health, abuse, sexuality, infidelity, identity, immigration, loss and among others. Every story was different, nuanced, and complex. Leone Ross can WRITE, and she shows off in this collection- I thoroughly enjoyed her showing off- I was HERE for it! She wrote contemporary, fiction, and magical realism stories in this collection.

At the end of each story I was left mouth hanging and blown away. If you check my book I actually wrote “whoa!” at the end of some of these stories. I love how Leone Ross through these stories questions what it is to be a woman, how society places a lot of expectations on us, and how we sometimes fight to live up to them. There is the story of President Daisy who is traveling to Montego Bay by train to meet with a uncle, while on the train a stranger asks about her life and she mentions the list of things her grandmother teaches her- more than 50% of these teachings had to do with how to be a “proper lady”.

On the other had I also love how she shows us characters who are free of these expectations and walking their own path. There is the Protagonist and her friend Marcia in the story Art, For Fuck’s Sake who shows us how they examine sexuality and pleasure. There is Marcia who only does one-night stands because it is less messy to the Protagonist who starts the story celibate and ends the story in a truly steamy situation.

I truly enjoyed this collection, you know how I know? Writing down the list of my stand outs is like re-writing the content page. Some of my stand outs were:

Echo | This was so timely, Leone Ross pays tribute to some of Black Lives we’ve lost to police brutality.

Roll it | A fashion show where the women are wearing designs that exudes Jamaican’s folklore and history including Rolling Calf and Annie Palmer.

Drag | This story features a gender non-confirming protagonist who owns their sexuality like you wouldn’t believe.

President Daisy | One of my FAVORITE story. I COULD NOT GET ENOUGH OF THIS. I am absolutely enamoured with Daisy and the gay man she meets on the train. What I love is that President tickled the homophobic man into leaving him alone. WOW.

Minty Minty | A woman celebrating her birthday in Africa, she intends to buy a baby (yeah can you believe that?) but it took another turn.

Breathing | YOEW! This story took me out!!! A man loses his wife in a freak accident, a few days later the wife shows up at his door. Also it seems everyone’s loved ones returned from the dead…. It is a weird world but I loved how Ross explored grief, regret and love in this story.

Art, For Fuck’s Sake | Let’s just say, Leone Ross can write sex scenes…. *fans self*

The Mullerian Eminence | This story was so unique I as blown away that the author thought about it. We meet a Cleaner who keeps finding Hymen, these Hymen all come with a story of rape and trauma that the Cleaner cannot stop hearing or talking about. What a nuanced story.

Honestly, I can go on and on about how brilliant a writer Leone Ross it and how deeply moving, nuanced and electrifying each story is but I think this is something you NEED to experience for yourself!

[2TReads · Rating 5 out of 5]

These stories were so good, so amazing, so unique, and utterly original.

'They don't like the sound of my voice, but come let us sing, anyway.' - Maski-mon-gwe-zo-os(the toad woman)

From the very first story, I knew I was going to be swept up and sheathed in the rhythm, fire, sensuality, sexuality, originality, and the overall uniqueness of the platter of words and stories that Ross has conjured here.

The words and the expressions of sentiment swallowed me whole and I could not wait for the next one, even as I was still entwined in the story before.

These stories are bursting with flavour, emotions, experiences, and are all so well written, that you can engage with every character, situation, atmosphere.

There are stories that made me laugh, sigh, commiserate, fall in love, exclaim, become sad, wonder at, and all because of the rawness, ingenuity, and humanity that each contained.

Ross absolutely blew me away with her depiction of queerness, desires, relatability, twists, turns, surprises, and originality that each story held.

[ReadAlongWithSue ★⋆. ࿐࿔catching up · Rating 4 out of 5]

These are a collection of stories that are each put together in this one publication.

I was surprised and overwhelmed to actually enjoy each and every story in its own right.

This year I decided to read some short stories and give them a chance, so far there is only one that didn't peg it for me but these others surely stirred my readers juices.
Handy to read whilst waiting for supper to cook, or sitting in your car waiting for someone etc.

Some of these are witty, wonderful and sweet, some will make a lump come into your throat.

They explore unbounded sexualitis and politics.

Deaths of black people at the hands of the Police.

Some are thought provoking, some will engage at your heartstrings.

Its said that these stories have been crated over some 15 years.

Worth a look.

[Terrance Shaw · Rating 5 out of 5]

Leone Ross is a writer who thinks deeply about her craft. Beyond mere nuts and bolts—the practical minutiae of syntax and punctuation—she grasps the workings of prose as few other writers do, at an elemental, sub-atomic level, her words like charged particles, whirling and spinning in concert to build up language of extraordinary power and beauty.

Ross never wastes a word. Her narrative style is objective, concise, economical yet seldom spare; rich and colorful yet never gaudy or effusive, animated by the lilting cadences of Jamaican patois, the word-music of the mother island, that home where her characters’ hearts invariably turn to remember in spite of time or distance.

Ross gives us melancholy, homesick stories of the Jamaican diaspora in Britain (Love Silk Food, The Mullerian Expanse), unexpected flashes of humor in the midst of conflict and despair (President Daisy, Velvet Man), the sweet-sour poignancy of imperfect love (The Woman Who Lived in a Restaurant, Art, For F***’s Sake), tragedy and heartbreak (Minty Minty, Mudboy), and existential horror with a knowing nod to island folklore and ghost stories (Roll It).

This is marvelous storytelling by any standard. The author artfully seduces the reader, and the reader is more than happy to let themself be seduced. The twenty-three short stories in 'Come, Let Us Sing Anyway' offer a sumptuous magical realism, the product of a frenetic and fertile imagination squarely rooted in the rich soil of cultural identity, the keen observation of gesture and motive refracted through a profoundly empathetic lens.

It would be difficult—if not impossible—to understate the excellence of this collection. As a reader, hungry for enlightenment, I was dazzled. As a writer with an abiding interest in the craft, I came away impressed, inspired, and deeply humbled.

Passionately recommended without reservation!

[Jherane Patmore · Rating 5 out of 5]

Every Story Is A Hit!

Typically short story collections will have their highs and lows, but Come Let Us Sing Anyway consistently provided hit after hit. Anyone who reads this anthology will quickly see that the writer works really hard to perfect her craft, and does it without a hint of pretentiousness. These stories are just damn good and as a bonus every one of them made me feel.

TW/CW: Story on police brutality, and mentions of: domestic violence & rape.

P.S.: What a way this woman can write a sex scene! I was reading Drag while at Chilitos and raas! I had to stop and walk around a few times. This has never happened to me before. Thankfully, I wasn't in public when reading Art, For Fuck's Sake cause no one needs to see my clutch my pearls and say "oh my" while turning each page.

Also: I savored every “rahtid” and “raasclaat”.

[Shivanee Ramlochan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Full review forthcoming for T&T Guardian's Sunday Arts.

[Keshia | BossBookBae · Rating 1 out of 5]

Review: a mess. Ugh. DNF

[Tasnim (Reads.and.Reveries) · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars. Where do I begin with this collection? I had no idea where these stories would take me but I learned pretty quickly that each one would take me somewhere completely new.
Some stories were so wonderfully weird, such as ‘Pals’, about a headless schoolgirl who, even without a head, cannot escape societal expectations of ‘femininity’.
Others, such as ‘Covenant’ were quietly horrific, and it was impossible not to feel the weight of ‘Echo’, a story that depicts the killing of Black people at the hands of police. At the end, a list of familiar names- those whose lives have been taken. It was impossible to read them without considering the names that have since been added to that list.
Sexual assault, and its life-altering impact, is a theme in a number of stories: ‘The Mullerian Eminance’ sees a man broken by the insight he receives into all the ways in which women suffer at the hands of men in particular. ’Phonecall to a London Rape Crisis Centre’ is three paragraphs, each one a poetically worded punch to the gut. And that’s the thing I discovered about Leone Ross’ writing: she somehow makes even the ugliest things read so very beautifully.
Love in all its guises is also very present throughout (it’s also worth noting that a few stories were very sexually explicit...)
As someone who is secretly quite sentimental, some stories made my heart soar: I loved the vulnerability of The Velvet Man, I finished President Daisy with the biggest smile on my face and I was so touched by Amber and Birdie’s story in ‘And You Know This...’
As for Leone Ross’ flash fiction, these stories were shorter than the page they were written on and yet that only seemed to make them more powerful.
To call these stories imaginative almost feels a little lazy, but imaginative they really are. In Leone Ross’ hands, words are masterfully manipulated and brought to life, and the effect is so, so captivating.

[fatma · Rating 3 out of 5]

There were some real standouts here, but I think as a whole, this was a 3-star collection for me.

Come Let Us Sing Anyway is a classic Leone Ross work, filled with vibrant, diverse stories with equally vibrant and diverse characters. There are shorter stories and there are longer ones, but in all of them, Ross gives you a strong sense of narrative voice, of emotion, of personal history. My favourites were definitely "Minty Minty" and "And You Know This" (which was so poignant and beautifully written). Having read Ross's recent novel Popisho, though, I can't help but feel like Come Let Us Sing Anyway is its less luminous sibling. That's not to say that the latter is bad, but just that Ross's writing is so extraordinary when it's longform rather than in short bursts--and some of these stories are short, sometimes only a page or two long. I always prefer longer short stories to shorter ones--just because we get to spend a little more time with the characters and, as a result, understand them better--so I think I also enjoyed this collection a little bit less because of the brevity of its stories.

Qualms aside, Leone Ross is one of the best writers working today, and I will always, always recommend that you read anything that she comes out with, whether short stories or a full-length novel.

Thank you so much to International Publishers Group for sending me a review copy of this in exchange for an honest review!

[Emmanuelle Maupassant · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read Leone Ross’ Drag a few years ago, and I knew right then that I’d found someone special, an author with a unique voice. For me, the story is about our desire not to be restricted or categorized. It’s a battle-cry for individuality, for throwing off shackles.

The whole collection, of Come Let Us Sing Anyway, has this feel for me, that we’re seeing characters who are defiantly blazing, refusing to be constrained by others' expectations.

Leone’s storytelling is fearless altogether, and radiant, which is especially apparent in her portrayal of erotic themes. Her prose is, by turns, refreshingly shocking and gorgeously sensual (often, both together!) Our desire for sexual connection is right where it should be in these stories, whether thrusting itself into the limelight, or gnawing away, silently.

Leone’s cast is diverse, eccentric, eye-poppingly theatrical. And yet their actions and words are strikingly familiar. Bizarre as they are, they show us the universal truths that bind us: that we all love, and grieve, and hope, and yearn; that we all struggle, and desire.

Few writers can deliver dialogue like Leone Ross – or achieve so much with so few words. Her stories sing in the small details, her characters built in the roll of their hips and the blossom of obscenities from their mouths, often delivered in Jamaican patwa.

Her prose is dazzlingly beautiful and daringly original (as a woman masturbates in a restaurant WC, ‘…even the shining tiles on the bathroom floor seemed to ululate to help her’).

As readers, we each bring our own interpretation; it’s what makes reading exciting. Come Let Us Sing Anyway is, in many places, bravely, invitingly ambiguous. It’s a wonderful thing, because it obliges us to bring ourselves to the story, to find meaning in relation to our own experience.

I know I’ll be returning to this collection, to revisit the glitter of these stories. Among my favourites were Minty, Minty and Love Letters, Art, For Fuck’s Sake, The Woman Who Lived in a Restaurant, and Drag.

[Apphia Barton · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't want to write a review just yet because I'm still gushing but I was particularly moved by the unique stories and their telling. There's an impressive variety for a collection of stories from a single writer. A few of the themes overlapped (not a complaint). Almost all of the stories were page turners. After reading a story I would feel a surge of creativity.

Great read. Effectively distracted me from all that's happening in my life and the world around me.

[Kathy · Rating 5 out of 5]

DNF 66%! I was highly enjoying this amazing book of short stories, A unique way of looking at the world, many incredible descriptions of different personalities. This one was a sure 5 star. And then.....I came across detailed animal abuse and my heart and soul shut away hard from this book. I can put up with quite gruesome things but not this kind of stuff! I would give it one star, but for the first 65% of a 5 star book. Be aware.....

[qamar⋆｡°✩ · Rating 4 out of 5]

4☆ — i am so glad i found this short story collection. it spanned multiple genres, tackling themes of abuse, affection, trauma, and so many others that are relevant to being a woman, with all of its love, loss, and betrayal. ross' writing is carefully crafted, making you pause as you read, absorbing the depth of what she has to convey. wonderful writing, wonderful stories.

[Nicola Fantom · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely loved this wonderful and weird collection of short stories, its always hard to rate shorr stories, however with this collection the writing is so fluid, lyrical and stunning in everyway.

STORIES range from historical to romantic sci-fi and fantasy, with a big bang of magical realism too.

There are some erotica which I dont normally enjoy however in this they are witty and gritty and real.

A lot of the stories are set in Jamaica as the author grew up there, and I love to read about different parts of the world. Fully enjoyed thankyou for tge the goodreads win, will be passing it onto my book group and hopefully doing a discussion when its done the rounds.

[Olwyn Ducker · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well worth the read

[Breanne Ivor · Rating 4 out of 5]

‘Today I feel like a drag queen. Walking down Soho way through the tourists and the catcalls. My crotch is aching under the good jeans and the bad underwear, watching the freaks go by, acres of eyeliner and jangly earrings and crap t-shirts that pass for fashion, walking and making sure my hips sway in calypso circles.’
🔥🔥🔥
Boy, can Leone Ross open a story. This is the start to her short story Drag and if that doesn’t make you want to read the rest then I don’t know what will. The story Roll It begins with the lines, ‘The woman has fifteen minutes before she dies on the catwalk.’ There were times when I put this book down and just admired the writing.

Come Let Us Sing Anyway is a short story collection that converses with people on the fringes of society. There is the protagonist of Drag – a woman who wants to experience sex as a man. Then there’s the protagonist of Roll It – a model who seemingly has it all, but who suffers abuse at the hands of her husband, Parker, who usually ‘hides the damage in her scalp, in the cleft of her buttocks and between her thighs’. The protagonist of Drag revels in unrestrained – and sometimes public – eroticism and sexual exploration while the protagonist of Roll It struggles to find a way out of her suffering.

This book is largely focused on the stories of women. There are two Jamaican women in the year 2070 who have been given a special injection. There is a celibate woman whose relationship with two male artists awakens desire in her again. There is a woman who returns from the dead and resumes living with her husband, having spent time in Hell. There is a victim who calls a London Rape Crisis Centre and ends the call defending her abuser. Then there’s a woman who tries to buy a baby in Africa. Believe me, I can go on and on. I would love to spend a day living in Leone Ross’ head to learn how her mind works!

Also, if you want to read a good sex scene – I mean, a searing hot sex scene – you will definitely find more than one here.

[Denise Mohammed · Rating 5 out of 5]

wow. Wow. WOW!!!!!!!

Leone Ross’ anthology, comprising 23 stories, will firmly grip you by the hand, take you to the highest mountain of your mind, then push you over the precipice into the depths of every imaginable (and unimaginable) human experience there is to feel.

Dripping with raw emotion, these stories explore themes such as deep-rooted psychological behaviours, erotic manifestations, eccentric identities, political complications, wildly imaginative fantasies and so much more. They turn the daily horrors of life - infidelity, depression, murder, incest, racism, the eternal struggle with self - as well as elusive facets - love, death - inside out, upside down, back and forth, to produce a colourful chaos, which I think, now in retrospect, is captured perfectly by the cover artwork.

Every story is unique, and open to a multitude of perspectives and interpretations, as Ross immerses us into her astonishingly creative and sometimes futuristic universe!

Stories that stood out to me are ALL, with the exception of:
• Love Silk Food
• Minty Minty
• Velvet Man
• The Heart Has No Bones

[Edward Champion · Rating 3 out of 5]

"The woman with the shrill voice had been raped twice before her tenth birthday, each time by her father, who smelled expensive then, and still did now."

Leone Ross has an exuberant irreverence that is very much in my wheelhouse. Coherence, on the other hand, is another matter. For every sustained endeavor such as "Breathing" or the audacious "The Mullerian Experience," there are too many pointless duds (conceptual claptrap like "Fix" or the many flash fiction stories that pad out this small short story collection). This feels very much like a young writer's scrapbook rather than a refined collection. I like Leone Ross's punkass spirit, but, at times, I wish she knew how to tell a story (at least at this stage in her career) or reveal something about her characters or what it is to be alive.

[L I L D I X · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve been meaning to read more of Leone’s work for a long time, because I was lucky enough to be taught by her while I was at university. I absolutely LOVED this collection. I wouldn’t say I’m a huge fan of short stories in general and usually find that a few in the middle tend to slow the pace a little and I get bored. In Come, Let Us Sing Anyway, I can honestly say I enjoyed every single story. They felt so raw, honest and relatable. Often at the same time as being utterly bizarre, surprising, and sometimes pretty filthy. I loved it, would read it all again in a heartbeat. Particular highlights for me: ‘President Daisy’, ‘Art, For Fuck’s Sake’, ‘Drag’ and ‘And You Know This’. Would thorough recommend.

[Ashley Marilynne Wong · Rating 5 out of 5]

Whilst I found a few of the stories triggering, I was compelled to give this powerfully luminous collection five stars. Every single story in the collection – triggering or otherwise – were beautiful, bold, dark, inventive, subversive and electrifying. Thus they absolutely blew my mind. Simply magnifique!

[Elizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

This collection of stories surprised me at almost every turn. Wild, joyous, subversive, queer, femininist as fuck. Yes please x 1000.

[Kat · Rating 1 out of 5]

Popisho is one of my favourite novels but really didn't enjoy this collection of short stories, some of them were great but many were just quite horrible, violent & disturbing. Wish I had seen a TW beforehand.

[Louise · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful book. Highly recommended.

[Rosamund · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the more consistent short story collections I've read. Each story is very well-crafted; alternately shocking, sexy, or ordinary. The one that stands out to me most is 'The Müllerian Eminence'.

[Elle · Rating 5 out of 5]

"They don't like the sound of my voice," she says. "But come, let us sing, anyway."

This bizarre collection of short stories explores a number of themes (sexuality, identity, loyalty, abuse) through the eyes of unlikely protagonists. I am awed by how authentic and deliberate Leone Ross is with her writing of every single story. Reading this book was a jaw dropping experience and I had so much to think about after every story. Each story is uniquely written and is brutally honest in addressing very relevant themes but is also quirky and witty and captivating. I am still trying to wrap my head around the some of the stories I read in this book but overall I am certainly glad I read them all.

[Selcouth Station · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m in love with Leone Ross’ lines. These lines are tender and beautiful, often vibrant and colourful, they twist, snap and kiss all at once. They move through the stories like golden threads, an accurate description given Ross’ meticulous attention to language and construction. Anyone who follows her Twitter or Facebook pages will see her ‘The Art of a Sentence’ series, where she takes a paragraph from a story in this collection and picks it apart for us, a magician more than happy to show us her tricks because she knows we can’t steal her magic, glamour and talent for spinning a damn-fine story. - Read the full review on www.selcouthstation.com....

[Muli Amaye · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an amazing book of short stories. Disturbing in a good way. Brave. Offers a glimpse of the shadow self in full glory.
Ross has a wonderful voice and plays with words, characters and plots in a way that makes you stop and think, yet still produces very readable stories that hold you long after you've finished.

[Natalie]

I would give this book zero stars if I could. My regret is that I didn't DNF it after the first story. I reached about half way and my spirit couldn't take anymore. The content was very crude, graphic and disturbing.

Shrouded in symbolism, this was a very confusing bunch of short stories that were not my cup of tea.

[Livey · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had to reread each story several times. Maybe I don’t understand the culture but these stories were extremely confusing and disturbing. Several were shocking

[Amanda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Elegantly erotic and witty magic realism populated by drag queens, threesomes and headless schoolgirls. Exuberant collection of short stories.