The Blue Donkey Fables

by Suniti Namjoshi

Genres: Poetry, Fantasy, Short Stories, Queer, Fiction

103 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1988

About the author

Suniti Namjoshi is a poet, children's author, and teacher. She ran a collaborative fiction site in the late nineties called The Reader's Text of Building Babel. She lives in England with her partner Gillian Hanscombe.

Reviews

[Harold Struik · Rating 4 out of 5]

Een sterkere Toon Tellegen met feministische humor.

[Jan Priddy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I must give this 5 stars just for the first story, "The Blue Donkey," because I always taught it at the beginning of the year to introduce our first 1-page writing assignment. I defined the conventions of a fable and we went through this story to note in ways it did not follow those rules. I would call it an allegory. The book is a compilation of allegories and poetry. Most of the poetry I could do without, but the allegories are powerful and on target even today.

That first Blue Donkey story was often assumed to be about race—which Suniti said was the typical and inaccurate interpretation. I told my students this before we moved on to write our own fables.

Once in a while a high school junior would stay after class and ask: "Is it about prejudice concerning gay people?"

Yes, yes, it is, and Suniti is lesbian who was quite definitely out, and that puts Dear Suniti several decades ahead of her time. While I was teaching there was risk for me to acknowledge this. I managed to do it, but every time I knew there could be trouble. I told them that Leonardo was gay, that dear friends in school were or are gay. [Barb died; I don't know about Randy.]

I had a writing class with Suniti in the early 90s. She somehow got a sonnet out of me—amazing! And she taught me rules for understanding editing and for the process of editing that still work, still amaze me in their eloquence and accuracy.

And now that I've reread this collection, I will go look for her most recent: Foxy Aesop aka Aesop the Fox.

[Dorothy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this book a surprising amount for one I plucked at random off the bookshelf of my rented apartment in Rome! A nice beach read (speaking from experience) with a few really remarkable poems.

[Charlotte Jones · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked up this book from my fiancé’s parents’ bookshelf on a whim. It looked like something a bit different to get me out of my horrendous reading slump (I’ve been barely reading the last three weeks or so) and I think it may have done the trick, though this is by no means a perfect book for me.

As stated in the title, this book is basically a collection of poems and short stories, all with fable-like qualities with a magical realism twist. I am not a big reader of poetry; it’s definitely something I have to read several times before I feel I grasp the full meaning of it. This was the case with this collection.

Namjoshi’s writing style made for an easy yet beautifully deep read, full of important themes about race, sexuality and feminism. I think that this should be something that more people start reading again as although it was originally published in 1988, I haven’t heard anyone talking about it and I think that there are definitely interesting discussions to be had about this collection.

Overall, although I didn’t necessarily fully understand some of this collection, I feel that it is a great introduction to Namjoshi’s writing and something that I think more people should be reading and talking about.

[Adrian · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fun and fabulous mix of tales and poetry, all with a point delivered deliciously indirectly.

[Zen Cho · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a funny one, because I really liked Namjoshi's writing style -- it's so clear, every word so well-chosen, that it's transparent. It's humorous and effortless and graceful, beautiful but not self-consciously so, intelligent without smugness. I would very happily read a novel in this voice and enjoy every minute, but I wasn't getting much out of the fables. I liked them, but they were mostly too short and sometimes too flip for me really to get anything out of them .... The poetry was OK, but poetry doesn't usually do that much for me anyway. I enjoyed reading this but wished there was more to and of it.

[Farah Mendlesohn · Rating 5 out of 5]

No one writes quite like Suniti Namjoshi. She shows the world to you in a different way.