No Sweetness Here, Ama Ata Aidoo's early volume of short fiction, is now available in the U.S. Set in West Africa, these stories chart a geography of consciousness during a period of transition from a colonial society through independence into a postcolonial world still in progress today. The characters - as many men as women come alive on these pages - enjoy good fortune and suffer pain in a traditional African manner: through brilliant, witty, defiant, image-laden speech. The style of these stories renders African orality dramatically: characterization emerges as much through the unique voice as through physical appearance.