Download or read book The Journey of a Caribbean Writer written by Maryse Condé and published by Africa List. This book was released on 2020-03-05 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For nearly four decades, Maryse Condé, best known for her novels Segu and Windward Heights, has been at the forefront of French Caribbean literature. In this collection of essays and lectures, written over many years and in response to the challenges posed by a changing world, she reflects on the ideas and histories that have moved her. From the use of French as her literary language--despite its colonial history--to the agonies of the Middle Passage, at the horrors of African dictatorship, and the politically induced poverty of the Caribbean to migration under globalization, Condé casts her unflinching eye over the world which is her inheritance, her burden, and her future. Even while paying homage to her intellectual and literary influences--including Frantz Fanon, Leopold Sedar Senghor, and Aimé Césaire--Condé establishes in these pages the singularity of her vision and the reason for the enormous admiration that her writing has garnered from readers and critics alike.
Download or read book Island People written by Joshua Jelly-Schapiro and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2016-11-22 with total page 464 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A masterwork of travel literature and of history: voyaging from Cuba to Jamaica, Puerto Rico to Trinidad, Haiti to Barbados, and islands in between, Joshua Jelly-Schapiro offers a kaleidoscopic portrait of each society, its culture and politics, connecting this region’s common heritage to its fierce grip on the world’s imagination. From the moment Columbus gazed out from the Santa María's deck in 1492 at what he mistook for an island off Asia, the Caribbean has been subjected to the misunderstandings and fantasies of outsiders. Running roughshod over the place, they have viewed these islands and their inhabitants as exotic allure to be consumed or conquered. The Caribbean stood at the center of the transatlantic slave trade for more than three hundred years, with societies shaped by mass migrations and forced labor. But its people, scattered across a vast archipelago and separated by the languages of their colonizers, have nonetheless together helped make the modern world—its politics, religion, economics, music, and culture. Jelly-Schapiro gives a sweeping account of how these islands’ inhabitants have searched and fought for better lives. With wit and erudition, he chronicles this “place where globalization began,” and introduces us to its forty million people who continue to decisively shape our world.
Download or read book The Traveller s Tree written by Patrick Leigh Fermor and published by Hachette UK. This book was released on 2010-10-10 with total page 300 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this, his first book, Patrick Leigh Fermor recounts his tales of a personal odyssey to the lands of the Traveller's Tree - a tall, straight-trunked tree whose sheath-like leaves collect copious amounts of water. He made his way through the long island chain of the West Indies by steamer, aeroplane and sailing ship, noting in his records of the voyage the minute details of daily life, of the natural surroundings and of the idiosyncratic and distinct civilisations he encountered amongst the Caribbean Islands. From the ghostly Ciboneys and the dying Caribs to the religious eccentricities like the Kingston Pocomaniacs and the Poor Whites in the Islands of the Saints, Patrick Leigh Fermor recreates a vivid world, rich and vigorous with life.
Download or read book Uselessness written by Eduardo Lalo and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2017-10-11 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Puerto Rican student at a Paris university grapples with heartbreak and isolation in this compelling novel by the author of Simone. The streets of Paris at night are pathways coursing with light and shadow, channels along which identity may be formed and lost, where the grand inflow of history, art, language, and thought—and of love—can both inspire and enfeeble. For the narrator of Eduardo Lalo’s Uselessness, it is a world long desired. But as this young aspiring writer discovers upon leaving his home in San Juan to study—to live and be reborn—in the city of his dreams, Paris’s twinned influences can rip you apart. Lalo’s first novel, Uselessness is something of a bildungsroman of his own student days in Paris. But more than this, it is a literary précis of his oeuvre—of themes that obsess him still. Told in two parts, Uselessness first follows our narrator through his romantic and intellectual awakenings in Paris, where he elevates his adopted home over the moribund one he has left behind. But as he falls in and out of love he comes to realize that as a Puerto Rican, he will always be apart. Ending the greatest romance of his life—that with the city of Paris itself—he returns to San Juan. And in this new era of his life, he is forced to confront choices made, ambitions lost or unmet—to look upon lives not lived. A tale of the travails of youthful romance and adult acceptance, of foreignness and isolation both at home and abroad, and of the stultifying power of the desire to belong—and to be moved—Uselessness is here rendered into English by the masterful translator Suzanne Jill Levine. For anyone who has been touched by the disquieting passion of Paris, Uselessness is a stirring saga. Praise for Uselessness “In this dreamy and succinct novel, Lalo takes readers on an intimate journey of companionship abroad. . . . This book is an important exploration of the Latin American experience in Europe. . . . Uselessness is a novel of modern plight that’s brimming with hope and wisdom.” —Booklist “Exploring the themes of love, isolation, and intellectual maturation, Uselessness will resonate with anyone who has fallen in love with Paris and its extravagant promises of romance and fulfillment.” —Rachel Cordasco, BookRiot “What a powerful, bleak, and moving novel. It dwells on things—human insignificance, disappointment, compromise, failure—that most books only gesture at.” —Ross Posnock, Columbia University
Download or read book The Lonely Londoners written by Sam Selvon and published by Penguin UK. This book was released on 2014-09-25 with total page 136 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Both devastating and funny, The Lonely Londoners is an unforgettable account of immigrant experience - and one of the great twentieth-century London novels At Waterloo Station, hopeful new arrivals from the West Indies step off the boat train, ready to start afresh in 1950s London. There, homesick Moses Aloetta, who has already lived in the city for years, meets Henry 'Sir Galahad' Oliver and shows him the ropes. In this strange, cold and foggy city where the natives can be less than friendly at the sight of a black face, has Galahad met his Waterloo? But the irrepressible newcomer cannot be cast down. He and all the other lonely new Londoners - from shiftless Cap to Tolroy, whose family has descended on him from Jamaica - must try to create a new life for themselves. As pessimistic 'old veteran' Moses watches their attempts, they gradually learn to survive and come to love the heady excitements of London. This Penguin Modern Classics edition includes an introduction by Susheila Nasta. 'His Lonely Londoners has acquired a classics status since it appeared in 1956 as the definitive novel about London's West Indians' Financial Times 'The unforgettable picaresque ... a vernacular comedy of pathos' Guardian
Download or read book Journey Back To Watooka written by Steve Connolly and published by FriesenPress. This book was released on 2018-04-06 with total page 375 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Open Journey Back To Watooka and take a reading leap out of your ordinary world into one that is truly unique, remarkable and mesmerizing ... that of Guyana. Locate it and master your mind to the magniffcent wonders of rainforest ora, fauna and flying things. Follow the Demerara ‘river of wonder’ upstream to the pulsating heart of bauxite country ... to Linden ...and to Watooka. Understand more about Guyana’s precious bauxite resource, about its history and of how the country, working with Canada, had helped to win WWII by producing aluminium to construct almost 40% of Allied war planes. Learn about the history and colourful culture of the only English speaking country in South America and the only country in the Caribbean that is not an island. Discover its rich past before, during and a er slavery. Enjoy seemingly endless stories of amazing people of six races entwined with history and achievement, not only in the country but also around the world. Counting explorers, slaves, quoted notables, common folks, politicians, government and business VIPs, engineers, academics, clergy, authors/poets, Amerindians, social workers and others, over 800 names are given mention. Enjoy this reading journey ... this ’story of stories’ written by a master story teller. And, learn about the promising future for this third world country about to cross forth into a first world future.
Download or read book Encyclopedia of Caribbean Literature written by D. H. Figueredo and published by . This book was released on 2006 with total page 522 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Details the lives and works of Caribbean authors in the context of Caribbean history and culture. This encyclopedia includes more than 700 alphabetically arranged entries written by more than 20 expert contributors. These entries cover authors, works, genres, historical and cultural figures, themes, and various topics.
Download or read book From Harvey River written by Lorna Goodison and published by McClelland & Stewart. This book was released on 2009-02-24 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Throughout her life my mother, Doris, lived in two places at once: Kingston, Jamaica, where she raised a family of nine children, and Harvey River, in the parish of Hanover, where she was born and grew up.” When Doris Harvey’s English grandfather, William Harvey, discovers a clearing at the end of a path cut by the feet of those running from slavery, he gives his name to what will become his family’s home for generations. For Doris, Harvey River is the place she always called home, the place where she was one of the “fabulous Harvey girls,” and where the rich local bounty of Lucea yams, pimentos, and mangoes went hand in hand with the Victorian niceties of her parents’ house. It is a place she will return to in dreams when her fortunes change, years later, and she and her husband, Marcus Goodison, relocate to “hard life” Kingston and encounter the harsh realities of urban living in close quarters. In Lorna Goodison’s spellbinding memoir of her forebears, we meet a cast of wonderfully drawn characters, including George O’Brian Wilson, the Irish patriarch of the family who married a Guinea woman after coming to Jamaica in the mid-1800s; Doris’s parents, Margaret and David, childhood sweethearts who became the first family of Harvey River; and their eight children, Cleodine, straight-backed and imperious; serious Albertha, called “Miss Jo” because she was missing all sense of joviality; beautiful Howard, who dies an early death; Rose, whose loveliness inspires devotion but whose own heart is never fulfilled; taxi-man Edmund, who yearns for the freedoms of the big city; Flavius, who spends his life searching for the true church of God; large-hearted, practical-minded Doris, whose bottomless cooking pot often feeds more than just her family; and vivacious, hard-headed Ann, whose gift of reading hair tells her the future. In lush, vivid prose, textured with the cadences of Creole speech, Lorna Goodison weaves together memory and mythology to create a vivid tapestry. She takes us deep into the heart of a complete world to tell a universal story of family and the ties that bind us to the place we call home.
Download or read book Josephine Against the Sea written by Shakirah Bourne and published by Scholastic Inc.. This book was released on 2021-07-06 with total page 207 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Meet Josephine, the most loveable mischief-maker in Barbados, in a magical, heartfelt adventure inspired by Caribbean mythology. * “A heart-wrenching adventure with big laughs and well-earned surprises.” –Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review Eleven-year-old Josephine knows that no one is good enough for her daddy. That's why she makes a habit of scaring his new girlfriends away. She's desperate to make it onto her school's cricket team because she'll get to play her favorite sport AND use the cricket matches to distract Daddy from dating. But when Coach Broomes announces that girls can't try out for the team, the frustrated Josephine cuts into a powerful silk cotton tree and accidentally summons a bigger problem into her life . . . The next day, Daddy brings home a new catch, a beautiful woman named Mariss. And unlike the other girlfriends, this one doesn't scare easily. Josephine knows there's something fishy about Mariss but she never expected her to be a vengeful sea creature eager to take her place as her father's first love! Can Josephine convince her friends to help her and use her cricket skills to save Daddy from Mariss's clutches before it's too late?
Download or read book Segu written by Maryse Conde and published by Penguin. This book was released on 1996-09-01 with total page 513 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Condé’s story is rich and colorful and glorious. It sprawls over continents and centuries to find its way into the reader’s heart.” —Maya Angelou “A wondrous novel” (The New York Times) by the winner of the 2018 New Academy Prize (The Alternative Nobel prize in literature) and author of The Gospel According to the New World The year is 1797, and the kingdom of Segu is flourishing, fed by the wealth of its noblemen and the power of its warriors. The people of Segu, the Bambara, are guided by their griots and priests; their lives are ruled by the elements. But even their soothsayers can only hint at the changes to come, for the battle of the soul of Africa has begun. From the east comes a new religion, Islam, and from the West, the slave trade. Segu follows the life of Dousika Traore, the king’s most trusted advisor, and his four sons, whose fates embody the forces tearing at the fabric of the nation. There is Tiekoro, who renounces his people’s religion and embraces Islam; Siga, who defends tradition, but becomes a merchant; Naba, who is kidnapped by slave traders; and Malobali, who becomes a mercenary and halfhearted Christian. Based on actual events, Segu transports the reader to a fascinating time in history, capturing the earthy spirituality, religious fervor, and violent nature of a people and a growing nation trying to cope with jihads, national rivalries, racism, amid the vagaries of commerce.
Download or read book An Embarrassment of Mangoes written by Ann Vanderhoof and published by Anchor Canada. This book was released on 2011-03-11 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Under the Tuscan Sun meets the wide-open sea . . . An Embarrassment of Mangoes is a delicious chronicle of leaving the type-A lifestyle behind -- and discovering the seductive secrets of life in the Caribbean. Who hasn’t fantasized about chucking the job, saying goodbye to the rat race, and escaping to some exotic destination in search of sun, sand, and a different way of life? Canadians Ann Vanderhoof and her husband, Steve did just that. In the mid 1990s, they were driven, forty-something professionals who were desperate for a break from their deadline-dominated, career-defined lives. So they quit their jobs, rented out their house, moved onto a 42-foot sailboat called Receta (“recipe,” in Spanish), and set sail for the Caribbean on a two-year voyage of culinary and cultural discovery. In lavish detail that will have you packing your swimsuit and dashing for the airport, Vanderhoof describes the sun-drenched landscapes, enchanting characters and mouthwatering tastes that season their new lifestyle. Come along for the ride and be seduced by Caribbean rhythms as she and Steve sip rum with their island neighbors, hike lush rain forests, pull their supper out of the sea, and adapt to life on “island time.” Exchanging business clothes for bare feet, they drop anchor in 16 countries -- 47 individual islands -- where they explore secluded beaches and shop lively local markets. Along the way, Ann records the delectable dishes they encounter -- from cracked conch in the Bahamas to curried lobster in Grenada, from Dominican papaya salsa to classic West Indian rum punch -- and incorporates these enticing recipes into the text so that readers can participate in the adventure. Almost as good as making the journey itself, An Embarrassment of Mangoes is an intimate account that conjures all the irresistible beauty and bounty from the Bahamas to Trinidad -- and just may compel you to make a rash decision that will land you in paradise.
Download or read book What Storm What Thunder written by Myriam JA Chancy and published by Tin House Books. This book was released on 2021-10-05 with total page 299 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: American Book Award Winner Aspen Words Literary Prize Finalist A NPR, Boston Globe, New York Public Library, Chicago Public Library, and Library Journal Best Book of the Year “Stunning.” —Margaret Atwood At the end of a long, sweltering day, an earthquake of 7.0 magnitude shakes the capital of Haiti, Port-au-Prince. Award-winning author Myriam J. A. Chancy masterfully charts the inner lives of the characters affected by the disaster—Richard, an expat and wealthy water-bottling executive with a secret daughter; the daughter, Anne, an architect who drafts affordable housing structures for a global NGO; a small-time drug trafficker, Leopold, who pines for a beautiful call girl; Sonia and her business partner, Dieudonné, who are followed by a man they believe is the vodou spirit of death; Didier, an emigrant musician who drives a taxi in Boston; Sara, a mother haunted by the ghosts of her children in an IDP camp; her husband, Olivier, an accountant forced to abandon the wife he loves; their son, Jonas, who haunts them both; and Ma Lou, the old woman selling produce in the market who remembers them all. Brilliantly crafted, fiercely imagined, and deeply haunting, What Storm, What Thunder is a singular, stunning record, a reckoning of the heartbreaking trauma of disaster, and—at the same time—an unforgettable testimony to the tenacity of the human spirit.
Download or read book Daughter of the Caribbean written by Norma Jennings and published by 3l Publishing. This book was released on 2010 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Daughter of the Caribbean is a love letter that pays homage to the culture and heritage of the exotic, beautiful, and conflicting island paradise that is Jamaica. It is an epic story told through the eyes of a Jamaican native, Olivia, who was raised for years by her Jamaican grandmother Sedith on the sprawling estate of Twickenham. The book explores the bonds of family, the value of embracing and understanding one's heritage despite notorious ancestors, and the journey that is life. Life's a battle, and Daughter of the Caribbean explores that battle in the backdrop of tropical paradise and eternal wonder. This book is a must read for anyone who loves stories of life, love, rich and controversial history and politics, and the bonds among family members that can't be broken.
Download or read book Our Caribbean written by Thomas Glave and published by Duke University Press. This book was released on 2008 with total page 420 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first book of its kind, Our Caribbean is an anthology of lesbian and gay writing from across the Antilles. The author and activist Thomas Glave has gathered outstanding fiction, nonfiction, memoir, and poetry by little-known writers together with selections by internationally celebrated figures such as José Alcántara Almánzar, Reinaldo Arenas, Dionne Brand, Michelle Cliff, Audre Lorde, Achy Obejas, and Assotto Saint. The result is an unprecedented literary conversation on gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered experiences throughout the Caribbean and its far-flung diaspora. Many selections were originally published in Spanish, Dutch, or creole languages; some are translated into English here for the first time. The thirty-seven authors hail from the Bahamas, Barbados, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Panama, Puerto Rico, St. Vincent, St. Kitts, Suriname, and Trinidad. Many have lived outside the Caribbean, and their writing depicts histories of voluntary migration as well as exile from repressive governments, communities, and families. Many pieces have a political urgency that reflects their authors' work as activists, teachers, community organizers, and performers. Desire commingles with ostracism and alienation throughout: in the evocative portrayals of same-sex love and longing, and in the selections addressing religion, family, race, and class. From the poem "Saturday Night in San Juan with the Right Sailors" to the poignant narrative "We Came All the Way from Cuba So You Could Dress Like This?" to an eloquent call for the embrace of difference that appeared in the Nassau Daily Tribune on the eve of an anti-gay protest, Our Caribbean is a brave and necessary book. Contributors: José Alcántara Almánzar, Aldo Alvarez, Reinaldo Arenas, Rane Arroyo, Jesús J. Barquet, Marilyn Bobes, Dionne Brand, Timothy S. Chin, Michelle Cliff, Wesley E. A. Crichlow, Mabel Rodríguez Cuesta, Ochy Curiel, Faizal Deen, Pedro de Jesús, R. Erica Doyle, Thomas Glave, Rosamond S. King, Helen Klonaris, Lawrence La Fountain-Stokes, Audre Lorde, Shani Mootoo, Anton Nimblett, Achy Obejas, Leonardo Padura Fuentes, Virgilio Piñera, Patricia Powell, Kevin Everod Quashie, Juanita Ramos, Colin Robinson, Assotto Saint, Andrew Salkey, Lawrence Scott, Makeda Silvera, H. Nigel Thomas, Rinaldo Walcott, Gloria Wekker, Lawson Williams
Download or read book Force Ripe written by Lera Cindy McKenzie and published by . This book was released on 2017-02-05 with total page 332 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A touching portrayal of a little girls story, beautifully woven into a work of fiction, through her eyes and in her own lyrical Creole voice. Force Ripe is not just another damaged childhood story, but one that depicts an exciting and important part of a Caribbean island's colourful history.
Download or read book New Worlds Old Ways Speculative Tales from the Caribbean written by Karen Lord and published by Akashic Books. This book was released on 2016-11-15 with total page 164 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The Caribbean has a powerful, modern tradition of fantastic literature that's on full display in this anthology of original fiction by writers from Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago, and Bermuda...None of these writers is likely to be familiar to American audiences, but all are worth getting to know. Readers who love the writing of Nalo Hopkinson, Tobias S. Buckell, and Lord herself will savor this volume." --Publishers Weekly, Starred review "New Worlds, Old Ways fulfills its promise of arriving at a recognizable genre of Caribbean speculative fiction. Prior to this collection we have not had any reader-friendly approaches that have directly addressed the genre of Caribbean speculative fiction. Lord, and the various writers in this collection, have given readers access to a hitherto unexplored genre, one that differentiates as well as connects to the treasure trove of Caribbean literature. The collection is a boon for scholars and reading aficionados of the Speculative Fiction genre. And as the editor states, true to its world, New Worlds, Old Ways offers both depth and delight without disappointment. It suggests tthat if one looks closely enough, they will find that Caribbean fiction has always been speculative." --SX Salon Do not be misled by the "speculative" in the title. Although there may be robots and fantastical creatures, these common symbols are tools to frame the familiar from fresh perspectives. Here you will find the recent past and ongoing present of government and society with curfews, crime, and corruption; the universal themes of family, growth and death, love and hate; the struggle to thrive when power is capricious and revenge too bittersweet. Here too is the passage of everything—old ways, places, peoples, and ourselves—leaving nothing behind but memories, histories, and stories. This anthology speaks to the fragility of our Caribbean home, but reminds the reader that although home may be vulnerable, it is also beautifully resilient. The voice of our literature declares that in spite of disasters, this people and this place shall not be wholly destroyed. Read for delight, then read for depth, and you will not be disappointed. Brand-new stories by: Tammi Browne-Bannister, Summer Edward, Portia Subran, Brandon O'Brien, Kevin Jared Hosein, Richard B. Lynch, Elizabeth J. Jones, Damion Wilson, Brian Franklin, Ararimeh Aiyejina, and H.K. Williams. New Worlds, Old Ways is the third publication of Peekash Press, an imprint of Akashic Books and Peepal Tree Press committed to supporting the emergence of new Caribbean writing, and as part of the CaribLit project.
Download or read book Claude McKay s Liberating Narrative written by Tatiana A. Tagirova-Daley and published by Peter Lang Incorporated, International Academic Publishers. This book was released on 2012 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Claude McKay's Liberating Narrative: Russian and Anglophone Caribbean Literary Connections examines McKay's search for an original form of literary expression that started in Jamaica and continued in his subsequent travels abroad. Newly found research pertaining to his presence in several Russian periodicals, magazines, and literary diaries brings new light to the writer's contribution to the Soviet understanding of African American and Caribbean issues and his possible influence on Yevgeny Zamyatin, the writer he met during his 1922 - 1923 visit to Russia. The primary focus of this book is Claude McKay and his positive reception of Alexander Pushkin, Feodor Dostoyevsky, and Leo Tolstoy, the nineteenth-century Russian writers who influenced his literary career and enabled him to find a solution to his dilemma of a dual Caribbean identity. The secondary focus of this book is the analysis of McKay's affinity with his Russian literary predecessors and with C.L.R. James and Ralph de Boissière, his Trinidadian contemporaries, who also acknowledged the importance of Russian writers in their artistic development. The book discusses McKay as a precursor of Russian and Anglophone Caribbean links and presents a comparative analysis of cross-racial, cross-national, and cross-cultural alliances between these two distinct yet similar types of literature. Claude McKay's Liberating Narrative is highly recommended for undergraduate and graduate courses in Caribbean and comparative literature at North American, European, Caribbean, and African universities.
