'Shut Up You're Pretty' Endears in Coming-of-Age Exploration of Identity
Between self-aggrandizing and intentional personal sabotage, Téa Mutonji’s Shut Up You’re Pretty weaves a perfect blend of naivety and enlightenment that brings her debut collection of stories to life.
Loli, her brother Junior, and Mother immigrate to Galloway, Alberta from the Congo when Loli is about six years old. Her distant father who immigrated before them has a job and a government-assisted townhouse in the rough part of town. Upon stepping out of the taxi with the bags of belongings that they have to their name, Loli encounters Jolie sitting on her step, waiting to give or deny approval of the incoming family. Loli and Jolie become best friends; smoking cigarettes, drinking, and hanging out in the park as Loli’s new life in Alberta begins.
Shut Up You’re Pretty by Téa Mutonji is a tale of one woman’s struggle to find herself in the din and insecurity that is growing up. Mutonji makes Loli’s isolation and second-guessing so realistic that I struggled to get through the short book because of how strongly I related to Loli’s decision making and inner dialogue.
There’s just something so universal about being an emotional nomad that, once you’ve experienced it, you feel it in your soul when it arises in a story. There is a strong, common emotion in moving someplace where no one knows you and finding your way through—doing things to fit in so you’re not ostracized, faking feelings because yours are against the grain, and rejecting who you are in order to get approval from anyone and everyone that you come across.
In stories like “Tits For Cigs,” “Parchment Paper,” and “Men, Tricks, and Money,” Muntoji shows off her writing prowess in her ability to simultaneously make your skin crawl while also evoking empathy as she takes you through Loli’s mindset in many compromising and devaluing situations like continuing to be the mistress in an affair, making money giving adult massages, and allowing your cousin to give you a bikini wax with glue and parchment paper.
Loli’s journey through sexuality is enjoyable in how she never quite defines hers—like her memory, it’s all very fluid. This is something I feel needs to be addressed more in our culture and within literature because it is such a normal way to live. Not everyone needs to define their sexuality as one thing or the other, and it was reassuring to not have Loli deal with that on top of everything else she was going through in the book.
Things don’t stay the same forever and instead often change at the drop of a hat— that aspect of her was refreshing to see in a character making decisions solely on want and nothing else underneath. The few times Loli thinks about her attractions, she does so out of a need to figure out her next move, never out of questioning whether she needs a more “normal” love life.
In “Sober Party,” Loli starts to address her life choices in a more clear-headed nature, but ultimately finds that she is who she is and there is nothing that can change her past, so she doesn’t attempt to try. She goes forward into her future with an understanding that there’s nothing wrong with her journey to adulthood.
“So I sat there. And I waited. I waited for the courage to go. I didn’t know where I was going, but I knew it had to be away from there,” Mutonji writes in “Theresa Is Getting Married.”
At times, Loli has a clear picture of her future, but oftentimes it’s muddled. Her desperation and willingness to conform in her later years is a struggle to read as it was hard to hold empathy for her when she couldn’t do as much for herself.
Shut Up You’re Pretty is a journey. An exploration of life’s simplest question: who am I? But Téa Mutonji doesn’t hold your hand and give you an easy answer; she throws a light into the dense forest and lets you find your own way.
Shut Up You’re Pretty is available now for purchase at Arsenal Pulp Press’ website and in bookstores across Canada.
Price: $17.95 CAD
ISBN: 9781551527550
Pages: 176
Genre: Fiction
Pub date: April, 2019
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Book Review
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December 3,
2020
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3 MINUTE
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Tiffany Niles
has an AA in creative writing from Long Beach City College. Through her pursuit of becoming a published author, she has grown to love all aspects of the writing/publishing community. She also hopes to help other underrepresented writers find their voices and tell their stories as well as develop her own voice in this ever-changing field of literary expression. She is excited and proud to be working as an editor for Perennial Press and on a new review for Shrapnel Magazine.
Her work can be found in Perennial Press, The Nasiona, 805LitMagazine, The Pandemic Post, and The Creepy Cheese. Instagram: @TifWrites and @Perennial_Press.