Caribbean Books - Page 2

Me Dying Trial (Bluestreak)

Patricia Powell

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

A Surprise Jewel 4 out of 5 stars.
10 of 11 people found this review helpful.

Anyone with a love of West Indian literature should real ME DYING TRIAL. Likewise, those with an interest in the gay and lesbian literature that has been coming from Caribbean writers over the past decade. ME DYING TRIAL is the first novel of Jamaican-born Patricia Powell who was only in her 20s when the book was published. It is an amazing accomplishment for a young writer. ME DYING TRIAL traces the life of Gwennie, a bright but unhappy Jamaican woman who has many children, an abusive husband, and a great deal of ambition. We feel we know her intimately and two of her children - Rudi and Peppy - are certainly memorable long after the book is finished as is Ma Cora, the woman who helps to raise Peppy. This is a novel about survival, about the complexities of family, about expectations, about hurt and loss. For those reading of the Caribbean for the first time, it gives a real flavor and feeling for the West Indies. And for those interested in finding characters to identify with in literature who feel slightly out of step with their families, ME DYING TRIAL has a lot to offer. The book may never be a classic, but it is well-written in gorgeously rendered dialect, and it was written by a brave and intelligent young woman.

Editorial Review:

Me Dying Trial, Patricia Powell's masterful debut novel, establishes her as a major voice in Caribbean literature. Gwennie Augusta Glaspole, a schoolteacher, is trapped in an unhappy marriage and quickly saddled with six children. Gwennie resists Jamaican cultural expectations of playing dutiful wife and mother, struggling in a loveless, often abusive relationship, she eventually relocates to Connecticut. Dealing with issues of religion, sexuality, immigration, domestic violence, and gender inequality, Powell has proven to be "a Generation-X vanguard for the Caribbean literary world" (Boston Magazine), and much more.

Sirena Selena: A Novel

Mayra Santos-Febres

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 5 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Sirena Selena: Caribbean Queen! 5 out of 5 stars.
7 of 7 people found this review helpful.

It has been a long time since I have read a beautiful novel set in the Caribbean. I had to get my hands on Mayra Santos Febres's book! It is so great to rediscover my Latin roots!

Sirena Selena is a fifteen-year-old boy whose grandmother died and left him alone in the streets of San Juan. The boy, however, had a great gift: he had the voice of an angel. Having heard him sing sad boleros in an alley, La Martha -- a Drag Queen and nightclub owner -- decides to take the boy under "her" wing. The novel takes you on a delicious and poignant trip to the life-altering events of Selena's life.

I love the bickering and the conversations between the "locas"; it is hilarious. The storytelling and language is beautiful. I marvel at the flawless translation. This is a very unique novel that everyone should indulge in. I highly recommend it!

Editorial Review:

Discovered by Martha Divine in the backstreets of San Juan, picking over garbage, drugged out of his mind and singing boleros that transfix the listener, a fifteen year old hustler is transformed into Sirena Selena, a diva whose uncanny beauty and irrisistable voice will be their ticket to fame and fortune. Auditioning for one of the luxury hotels in the Dominican Republic, Selena casts her spell over Hugo Graubel, one of the hotel's rich investors. Graubel is a powerful man in the Republic, married with children. Silena, determined to escape the poverty and abuse s/he suffered as a child, engages Graubel in a long seduction in this mordant, intensely lyrical tragi-comedy - part masque, part cabaret - about identity (class, race, gender) and "the hunger and desire to be other things."

Embracing The Moonlight (Kimani Romance)

Wayne Jordan

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 5 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Embracing the Moonlight 3 out of 5 stars.
3 of 6 people found this review helpful.

EMBRACING THE MOONLIGHT by Wayne Jordan
September 15, 2006

Rating ***

Wayne Jordan is one of the first male writers to be published under the Arabesque line of African American romances. EMBRACING THE MOONLIGHT is his second novel, a sequel to the first which was CAPTURE THE SUNRISE. In this second novel, he continues the story of the Buchanan Brothers by introducing Mason Sinclair, a man who thought he knew who is father was until the death of that man prompts his mother to tell him the truth.

The novel opens with Mason still recovering from a shooting, in which his partner was killed in the line of duty. Mason was lucky, and only his leg had been injured. He is now sporting a cane. Mason has just learned about the death of his real father, Joshua Buchanan, and is confused in his feelings toward his mother and the man who was his biological father. Mason finally decides to search for his birth family, a number of which reside in Barbados.

His time spent in Barbados turns out to be nothing like he had expected. Besides finding one of his biological brothers, he also meets a beautiful woman who introduces herself as Lianne Thompson, a nanny to a young boy living on the island. But Mason's instincts tell him that she's not being forthright with him and there is more to her than just being a nanny.

Lianne, who is really an agent helping to protect Sheila and young Damien from men who are attempting to find and kill them, is curious about Mason and is wondering what has brought him to the island. Mason is keeping his relationship with the Buchanan's a secret, at least for now, so she has no idea what he is doing on the island. But she too suspects he's hiding something from her, and her background as an agent causes her to be suspicious. He could be someone planted by those who want Sheila and Damien dead. In the mean time, Lianne's job is to take care of Sheila and Damien, making sure nothing happens to them.

While EMBRACING THE MOONLIGHT was very enjoyable and will keep the reader's interest, it could have been written with a much tighter structure. However, the author had a good grasp on characterization, which this reviewer feels is the most important aspect of a good romance. While this reviewer did not quite connect with any of the characters, the book was worth reading as the story line kept the reviewer intrigued and the backdrop of the island of Barbados was appealing.

The romance between Mason and Lianne develops slowly, as the focus between the various subplots is made just as important as the relationship between Mason and Lianne, giving this romance a romantic suspenseful feel at times, with a lot of action. But for readers who are expecting a full-on romance will not be disappointed. There are plenty of romantic scenes under the Barbados moonlight that will satisfy all romance readers. While the various story lines seem to be as equally important, and the focus at first is on the case that Lianne is involved in, the novel's focus turns to romance as Mason and Lianne get to know each other, despite her attempts at hiding her true identity.

The subplot involving Carolyn Sinclair and her budding romance with a much younger man was refreshing and while it definitely didn't take up as much of the novel as the romance between Mason and Lianne, this reviewer felt that Carolyn's story could have been a separate book. There could have been so much more done with it. This story line had the least emphasis, but at the same time it was just as important to the novel as a whole.

For those who enjoyed EMBRACING THE MOONLIGHT, CAPTURE THE SUNRISE should be a recommended read as well. The next book in the Buchanan family series will focus on another Buchanan brother, and should be just as satisfying if not better than the previous two books. Wayne Jordan does a wonderful job with the backdrop of the island of Barbados, plus it is a perfect spot for a romance. -- courtesy of Loveromancesandmore

Editorial Review:

He found trouble in paradise . . .

When Mason Sinclair visits the island of Barbados, he hopes to discover more about the father and brothers he has never known. Injured in the line of duty, Mason finds that the island is the perfect place to recover and make a decision about his future. However, he never expects to meet Lianne Thomas, a woman with secrets of her own, or fall hopelessly in love . . .

The Book of Night Women

Marlon James

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Editorial Review:

From a young writer who radiates charisma and talent comes a sweeping, stylish historical novel of Jamaican slavery that can be compared only to Toni Morrison’s Beloved.

The Book of Night Women is a sweeping, startling novel—a true tour de force of both voice and storytelling—that tells the story of a young slave woman on a sugar plantation in Jamaica at the turn of the nineteenth century, revealing a world and a culture that is both familiar and entirely new. Lilith is born into slavery, and even at her birth, the slave women around her recognize a dark power that they—and she— will come to both revere and fear. The Night Women, as they call themselves, have long been conspiring to stage a slave revolt, and as Lilith comes of age they see her as the key to and—as she reveals the extent of her power and begins to understand her own desires and feelings—potentially the weak link in their plans.

Lilith’s story overflows with high drama and heartbreak, and life on the plantation is rife with dangerous secrets, unspoken jealousies, inhuman violence, and very human emotion— between slave and master, between slave and overseer, and among the slaves themselves. Lilith finds herself at the heart of it all. And all of it told in one of the boldest literary voices to recently grace the page—and the secret of that voice is one of the book’s most suspenseful, satisfying mysteries.

The real revelation of the book—the secret to the stirring imagery and insistent prose—is Marlon James himself, a young writer at once wholly in command of his craft and breathtakingly daring, spinning his magical web of humanity, race, and love, fully inhabiting the incredibly rich nineteenth-century Jamaican patois that rings with a distinctly contemporary energy.

The Orchid House

Phyllis S. Allfrey

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

The Orchid House 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

The book is in really good condition and was received promptly. I'd buy again from this source.

Editorial Review:

Lally helps to raise three white sisters in the Orchid House on the Island of Dominica and observes as each flees to the cold northern lands of England and America only to return to their magical past and the man they love. (General Fiction).

Minty Alley

C. L. R. James

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Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

First published in London in 1939, Minty Alley is now made available for the first time to American readers. In the pages of this work C. L. R. James is both an imaginative political theorist and a sensitive commentator on the West Indian social and cultural scene.

James's novel has been acclaimed as "a ground-breaking example of regional social realism" and as "a major forerunner of the Caribbean literary movements in English." Many of James's readers believe that it is not possible fully to comprehend Caribbean literary art in English without first reading Minty Alley. In the interactions of the characters of Maisie, Haynes, Mrs. Rouse, and Benoit, James discerns new forms of society rooted in the oldest of desires and aspirations. In the everyday language of the unforgettable dialogues in the novel James reveals new modes of human relationships.

Haynes, a young middle-class lodger at No. 2 Minty Alley, becomes both confidant and judge as he examines the other inhabitants at this address. From his experiences he realizes the mutually impoverishing alienation of the educated West Indian from the mainstream. Through Haynes's vivid narration James presents the rich cultural life on Minty Alley. Haynes, an outsider among people of lower class, knows his fellow lodgers only as they have revealed themselves to him through their speech and actions, yet each has a mysterious inner life.

Frequently reprinted in the United Kingdom, Minty Alley at last reaches the United States so that American readers can learn what much of the rest of the English-speaking world has long known, that before such masterworks as The Black Jacobins, World Revolution, and Beyond a Boundary, C. L. R. James had already made his mark as one of the foremost of West Indian novelists.

Copublished with New Beacon Books Ltd.

C. L. R. James (1901-1989) was a leading figure in the Pan-African movement. He has been called the most distinguished West Indian of modern times.

Not for sale in the U. K. and European Common Market countries

The Heinemann Book of Caribbean Poetry (Caribbean Writers Series)

Stewart Brown, Ian McDonald

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Editorial Review:

This collection is an invaluable academic selection and will provide a fine introduction for the general reader interested in the lyricism of Caribbean poetry.

Verbal Riddim: The Politics and Aesthetics of African-Caribbean Dub Poetry (Cross/Cultures)

Christian Habekost

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Editorial Review:

This is the first book-length study of dub poetry, the musical talkover that has been an important part of the reggae scene in Canada, Britain and of course the Caribbean since the 1970's. Christian Habekost 's qualifications for writing such a book are beyond dispute. He is a German poet who has been involved with the dub movement since it began and knows most of its leading figures. As Ranting Chako, he is featured on the LP Dread Poets Society. The bibliography indicates that he has interviewed many of the 43 poet-performers mentioned, often on several occasions. Verbal Riddim, based on his doctoral dissertation at the University of Mannheim, is a successful blend of the performer and the researcher.

Buxton Spice

Oonya Kempadoo

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Total reviews: 11 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Born in London, but raised in a flyspeck village in Guyana, Oonya Kempadoo has now preserved her youth in exquisite amber. Buxton Spice will no doubt be compared to the work of Jamaica Kincaid, and the analogy is actually an instructive one (beyond the fact that both authors are Caribbean women). Kempadoo too has found her own idiom for rendering the magical or mundane perceptions of childhood. Even so pedestrian an activity as rollerskating seems to be taking place for the first time:

We tottered on to the road and set off. My legs felt like matchsticks with huge weights on the ends. Looked ridiculous, but was rollerskates and we had them first. The sound of hard plastic on the gritty asphalt cleared the cool night air for us to come sailing through. Up and down the road. Past the fellars watching.

The passage above, with its low-key lyricism and artful omission, is fairly typical of Kempadoo's narrator, Lula. The presence of the fellars is typical, too. For Buxton Spice is very much a narrative of sexual awakening--its plot can almost be summarized in a single word, puberty. Lula gets a nominal course in sex ed by observing the three whores in her tiny village of Tamarind Grove. But at one point, she and three girlfriends pair off into husband-and-wife teams and play house--with sufficient realism to include a boudoir interlude. Their imaginary lovemaking, which features a battery as a kind of low-tech dildo, is a tour de force of eroticism and giggly absurdity.

Buxton Spice is not, however, a mere exercise in dirty dancing. It includes many fine bits of small-town portraiture, such as this quick take on a Portuguese store-owner: "Ricardo was pink and meticulous. When he was sober he had a slow solid way of moving and hardly spoke in the house. Slept in the shop. His clothes had to match." There are also oblique lessons in Guyana's politics and caste system. What's missing, perhaps, is a sense of narrative drive: Kempadoo puts her characters on their appointed paths but seldom manages much in the way of collision. Still, her book is an auspicious and utterly distinctive slice of small-town life. What's more, it has the ring of truth to it: this, we're persuaded, is Lula's song of experience, battery-powered as it may be. --James Marcus

The Intended

David Dabydeen

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Editorial Review:

Exploring rites of passage in London's Asian community, this semiautobiographical novel follows a young Indo-Guyanese narrator from his South American village to Great Britain. With determination and self-discipline he seizes opportunities of education and upward mobility, but struggles to keep his cultural identity alive through memories of his childhood. This sophisticated postcolonial text links language and character to reveal the social divisions, educational obstacles, and self-exploration of a struggling foreigner in the mid-20th century.