In “Runs Girl”, Ada visits her parents’ grave in the manner of a sinner confessing sins to a secluded priest. Chinelo is quite the poet, and she had it coming for us right from the title. Some of the stories taper into obscurity as they journey into the horizon language is hallucinatory every once so often, poetry branches out behind prose. In this book, prose doesn’t quite behave like prose. You might as well put on funeral clothes before reading as happiness is indeed like water for these troubled women – snaking away through multiple exit doors between fingers, pooling in a different place each time which makes no promises. Nothing ends well in the life of these women burdened by religion, men, and cultural disposables, to pluck the low-hanging fruits. Happiness, Like Water, is a collection of short stories about different and differently flawed women for whom happiness hangs on the horizon, far from what the longest fishing line can reach. You haven’t? Oh well, let me give you my blessings. Have you wondered about prose that smuggles in social commentary, sniffs philosophy, commands poetry to pass the salt? Prose that reads like hands reading a texture of oiled skin, threatening a sugar crash. Happiness, Like Water is her debut fictional collection. Her story “America” was short-listed for the Caine Prize in African Writing. Retrieved Aug– via Lambda Literary Foundation.Author’s Bio: Chinelo Okparanta is a Nigerian-American short story writer born in Port-Harcourt, Nigeria. ' 'Happiness, Like Water' by Chinelo Okparanta'.

^ Mishan, Ligaya (September 13, 2013).

^ 'HAPPINESS, LIKE WATER | Kirkus Reviews' – via Kirkus Reviews.

'Finding Love And Self-Acceptance 'Under the Udala Trees' '.

'Chinelo Okparanta: Champion of the Stifled'. 'Of Tumours and Butterflies, happiness like water'. Retrieved Aug– via National Public Radio. ' 'Happiness, Like Water' Based On Nigerian-American Writer's Reality'.

'Okparanta's Short Story Collection 'Happiness Like Water' Is Powerful In Its Universality'. 'Casey reviews Happiness, Like Water by Chinelo Okparanta – The Lesbrary' – via The Lesbrary. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt/Mariner, $14.95 trade paper (208p) ISBN 978-5-3'.

^ 'Fiction Book Review: Happiness, Like Water by Chinelo Okparanta.

Happiness like water