Stories from the Tenants Downstairs

By: Sidik Fofana

Narrated by: Joniece Abbott-Pratt, Nile Bullock, Sidik Fofana, Dominic Hoffman, DePre Owens, André Santana, Bahni Turpin, Jade Wheeler

Length: 6 hrs and 4 mins

Publisher's summary

SELECTED FOR THE RUSA 2023 LISTEN LIST FOR OUTSTANDING AUDIOBOOK NARRATION!

WINNER of the Gotham Book Prize * Finalist for the Los Angeles Times Art Seidenbaum Award, and the Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence * Longlisted for the Story Prize

Named a BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR by NPR, Kirkus Reviews, Library Journal, Chicago Review of Books, LitHub, and Electric Lit

“A standout achievement…American speech is an underused commodity in contemporary fiction and it’s a joy to find such a vital example of it here.”—The Wall Street Journal

From a superb new literary talent, a rich, lyrical collection of stories about a tight-knit cast of characters grappling with their own personal challenges while the forces of gentrification threaten to upend life as they know it.

At Banneker Terrace, everybody knows everybody, or at least knows of them. Longtime tenants’ lives are entangled together in the ups and downs of the day-to-day, for better or for worse. The neighbors in the unit next door are friends or family, childhood rivals or enterprising business partners. In other words, Harlem is home. But the rent is due, and the clock of gentrification—never far from anyone’s mind—is ticking louder now than ever.

In eight interconnected stories, Sidik Fofana conjures a residential community under pressure. There is Swan, in apartment 6B, whose excitement about his friend’s release from prison jeopardizes the life he’s been trying to lead. Mimi, in apartment 14D, hustles to raise the child she had with Swan, waitressing at Roscoe’s and doing hair on the side. And Quanneisha B. Miles, in apartment 21J, is a former gymnast with a good education who wishes she could leave Banneker for good, but can’t seem to escape the building’s gravitational pull. We root for the tight-knit cast of characters as they weave in and out of one another’s narratives, working to escape their pasts and blaze new paths forward for themselves and the people they love. All the while we brace, as they do, for the challenges of a rapidly shifting future.

Stories from the Tenants Downstairs brilliantly captures the joy and pain of the human experience in this “singular accomplishment from a writer to watch” (Library Journal, starred review).

©2022 Sidik Fofana. All rights reserved. (P)2022 Simon & Schuster, Inc. All rights reserved.

Critic reviews

"After a moody jazz riff, Sidik Fofana and a stand-out cast of performers transport listeners to the Banneker Terrace apartments in Harlem. Written in vibrant Black American vernacular, these witty, sad, uplifting stories are ideal for audio. Joniece Abbott-Pratt’s Mimi is a beautician behind on the rent. Fofana’s Swan might mess up because of a visitor. André Santana’s Darius tries to earn funds by offering therapy instead of prostitution. Bahni Turpin’s Ms. Dallas is a classroom aide bossed too often by a Harvard-educated teacher. DePre Owens’s Kandese manages a candy-selling ring of girls. Nile Bullock’s Najee and pals dance for tips in the subway. Jade Wheeler’s Quanneisha handles residents she doesn’t like. Dominic Hoffman’s Mr. Murray earns money playing chess. They’re all unforgettable."—AudioFile Magazine

Not when I expected.

This is an urban story about a tenement in Harlem. I guess I didn’t read about it well, enough, because I wasn’t aware of that. The first story is interesting. Second one painful, third one excellent. I was hooked from there. It really leaves you wanting to know more about each of the people.

Interesting

An interesting collection of interwoven stories from different perspectives of tenants in the same building. I enjoyed the range of style and storytelling in this

Loved these stories!

It’s always good to view life experiences from different perspectives, encouraging folks learn and respect the truth(s) from those most affected.

Real life glimpse into others lives.

This truly is a real life glimpse into what life is like for some - a bit graphic at times but raw and real. I worked in an urban area in property management - including managing apartment complexes - for 15 years. These stories pulled me right back into that time of my life and reminded me of friends I haven't talked to in awhile. made me wonder what other obstacles they are facing currently. Sidenote: the narration is fantastic! I've listened to thousands of audio books and this is well done! Thanks for all who worked hard to make this happen and to bring to light a world that many have not entered, and that many live in every day.

Excellent & Original Stories & Performance

The recording and dialogues were like sitting at the best theatre. Congratulations to the author and the readers of this original collection of stories!

not what I expected

This book is very well written and narrated but it was not at all what I expected. It's also out of my awareness zone which is why I listened through to the end. I am really, really glad that I did.

Couldn’t have been any better

And actually wish there had been more stories. Excellent writing, excellent stories, excellent cast for the reading. Thank you for your labeling us on this wild roll and coaster!

Slices of Harlem Life: “Is it despair or prevail?”

Stories from the Tenants Downstairs (2022) is a set of eight slice of life tales depicting various inhabitants of Banneker Terrace apartment building in Harlem: Mimi, a young single mother trying multiple strategies to come up with $350 for rent, hindered by her sweet lead poison brain damaged little son Fortune; Swan, the boy’s father still living in his mother’s apartment realizing that despite a black president he and his freshly out of prison friend will never really change; Ms. Dallas, Swan’s mother trying to earn rent money while working two jobs, one as “para” chaperoning a special needs child at the precarious Sojourner Truth Middle School; an anonymous girl living in Clinton and mutely falling under the spell of Kandese, who, after being expelled from Sojourner Truth, stays the summer with her grandmother; Dary, a young gay man trying to become a hairdresser while not becoming a prostitute; Najee, a twelve-year-old writing a letter explaining how he came to start dancing for money on trains and cause a tragic accident; Neisha, an ex-gymnast and university dropout returning to Banneker to work on the Committee of Concern connecting a lawyer to residents on the eviction list (including the childhood friend who ruined her gymnastics dream); and Mr. Murray, a philosophical old man who likes keeping a low profile and sitting on the sidewalk playing chess with passersby.

Many of the stories end abruptly without our learning how the protagonist is going to be. We get hints as to that when characters from earlier stories are referenced in later ones, but the stories are not linked plot-wise. In Swan’s story, he never mentions his son or Mimi; in Najee’s story, he doesn’t really mention Kandese; in Ms. Dallas’ story, she never mentions her grandson or Mimi). It’s not a composite novel.

The stories mostly lack epiphanies and metamorphoses and often end on a note of quiet devastation. The characters have their dreams, but we know (and they mostly come to know) they ain’t coming true. The rap-like “Intro” ends, “Everybody got a story, everybody got a tale/ Question is: Is it despair or prevail?” And Fofana’s people rarely “prevail.” So I wince whenever a character says something like, “Imma get a job and buy a house for my mother.” I also get frustrated at key moments when the sensitive but often passive characters know they should say or do something but end up staying silent or watching. Fofana is showing how the difficult and stressful lives of people of color drain positive vigor from them, and it often makes for depressing reading.

On the plus side, some of the characters have an impressively uncompromising pride and ethical standard. Although when pushed to it Mimi will charge double to do her friend’s daughter’s hair and use her son’s backpack to shoplift diapers, she will NOT move back home with her tail between her legs to live with her mother and four sisters on welfare; although Dary will have sex with a stranger in a DC hotel room, he will NOT take money for it. Small moments of resistance and integrity if not victory.

These are stories FROM the tenants, so seven of them are first person, one second person, and each has a distinctive, savory, demotic, AAVE voice talking to the reader, like in this excerpt from the first story, “Rent Manual—Mimi, 14D”:

“Banneker Terrace on 129th and Fred Doug ain't pretty, but it's home. Until now, it's been the same since you moved here when you was pregnant with Fortune. One long gray-ass building, twenty-five floors, three hundred suttin apartments. Four elevators that got minds of they own. Laundry full of machines that don't wash clothes right. Bingo room that the old folks hog up and a trash chute that smell like rotten milk.”

Fofana writes conversations without quotation marks:

You gonna go over there and live by yourself? Your ma asked.
That’s what I said, Ma, didn’t I?
Chase after a man that don’t want nothin to do with no baby? And how you gonna make for rent?
Imma get a job like responsible people.
I heard that before.

And he writes lots of the n word and lots of the mf word and lots of slang and expressions like “be like that's what I'm tryna say,” or “I know suttin that make you happy,” or “big-ass pot.”

The distinct voices of the character-narrators are enhanced by each story having a different—excellent—audiobook reader. My favorite is Dominic Hoffman as the old chess playing Mr. Murray (what a savory voice!), but Bahni Turpin as Mimi is also great.

There is some telling social criticism, like about liberal white people naively thinking they can enrich ghetto kids’ lives by making them read literature* or about the trend in companies forcing low-income residents out and renovating apartments to get higher paying ones and upscale restaurants replacing older ones.

*Actually, young and white Mr. Broderick, who constantly boasts about graduating from Harvard, force feeds Steinbeck and Shakespeare to the poor Sojourner Truth kids, and unfairly resents and scorns Ms. Dallas is a little too clueless to believe.

As I am white, grew up comfortably, and only once temporarily got a mild taste of poverty (living on a TA’s salary in graduate school) and disappointment (having my cv rejected 300 times), it was illuminating, moving, and sobering to read these stories.

I would read another book by Fofana.

Good, despite not usually liking short stories.

This is a collection of stories revolving around the residents of Banneker Homes, a Harlem High Rise. Each story has a different angle on the goings-on in the building, and each is read by a different narrator. It works!

Banneker Homes has a new owner bent on enforcing evictions in order to raise the rent and attract a higher end clientele. The residents, whether working or just getting by, can rarely pay their rent - some through poor spending habits, others through circumstances. Their association has warned them this will happen and has tried to help them, but it does not look good.

The stories each show a different attitude, vocabulary, and personality. Some can be quite vulgar, others achingly sad. The thread that holds the stories together is the threat of homelessness. I was pleasantly surprised by the final story, "The Federation of the Like-minded," told in the words of an elderly man who enjoyed sitting out on the sidewalk waiting to play chess with anyone. it was beautiful.

A stunning collection.

Wonderful stories

Totally enjoyed this book the last story rounds the series out in a sweet way.