The Heads of Colored People was on my long list of the books I wanted to read during the pandemic and although some of the books I have read so far were disappointing I knew somehow that this one was going to reach my expectations. In fact, it surpassed it. I am still thinking about it to this day and I read it 2 weeks ago. The Heads of Colored People is a collection of short stories following black men and women at a particular moment in their life. Some of the characters cross each other, but each story is unique and not about their life being intertwined.

We have a character whose life that is centered around social media, is planning her suicide. She believes that her suicide will attract the attention that she needs to regain some popularity. Nafissa incorporated dark humor in a story that tackles suicide and the devastating psychological effect of social media cleverly. In another story, a man who just got hired at a community university after he resigned from his similar position at a prestigious university, has to share an office with a female colleague. This issue between them rises over keeping the light shut or not in the office. This one was hilarious. On the same note, I particularly enjoyed the story called Belles Lettres. Not only was it funny but, it highlighted deeper questions on preconceived ideas and the closed-mindedness of people coming from the same community. We get to explore the consequences briefly of it in ‘Fatima, the biloquist: A transformation Story’.’ This Todd’ was extremely disturbing to me. I cringed many times as I was reading about a woman fetishizing men with leg disability. All of Nafissa‘s stories are excellent because they make you realize at the end of every single one that there is a deeper story underlying the main ones. ‘Wash Clean the Bones’ left me vulnerable for a long time. I felt emotionally challenged. A single woman who has a baby son via IVF goes through intense stress over her belief that she will not be able to protect her son she loved very much in a society where black men get killed by cops. This happened after she experienced the death of a dear man she knew and of a little boy. She struggles at defusing her anxious thoughts and as a result of not managing them, she is about to do the unimaginable thing – taking her own son’s life. Nafissa handled various and difficult topics very well. Her stories are nuanced. She fleshes her characters’ humanity out. She managed to add humor in drama in a way that makes you question the topics she tackled. Well done for the satire.  Nafissa has definitely the skills to mix comedy and depressing shades together and to leave you confused by your own thoughts on certain things. Her writing is full of wit which is a delight

Bravo Nafissa