I thought I was going to be more organized and post regularly. In my defense there have been a number of passings of great people ( family or family friends) who contributed to Jamaica and the Caribbean, and we had to go to the funerals. Four in two months takes its emotional toll. And we must believe that indeed there are younger ones who will follow in their footsteps, even if they cannot fill their shoes.
I was most disturbed to read that the Burt Awards for the Caribbean YA books/stories will be discontinued due to the passing of the donor, and the decision of those in control of those purse springs to spend the money in other ways. I am very, very sad about this. Wonderful work has been produced and my heart has been filled with joy over the talent displayed; and many of the writers are young. No, Nancy Drew and company cannot replace them, as some have said. No, these are first class books and should be in every school, for reading, for discussion (no, not as set books), but to be recognized as recordings of our times and for knowledge and most of all, enjoyment. A book for enjoyment? Yes, indeed! If our young people haven't found this out yet what a pleasure they have missed.
I plan to write a few words about the ones I've read (I haven't been able to access all) not a review really, but what I liked about them, the reason why I hope that Bocas Lit will find another sponsor. I will start with
Gone to Drift, written by Diana McCaulay. It was a review by me, but more from the point of view of how it affected me, rather than a scholarly approach. I had posted this at a previous time, but it's more relevant to post it again here, as it will inform future postings about the other books .
In praise of "Gone to Drift" by Diana McCaulay:
Prize Winner Burt Award for Caribbean Literature, 2015: Papillote Press, 2016
This is a beautiful book. If it were a painting it would be in tones of grey and shades of blue for the sea, and for the land, tones of beige and green, with splashes of colour added by the people who travel across its landscape. And I would buy it instantly for fear of losing it.
This may seem like a strange way to begin a book review, and maybe this is not really an actual book review; maybe it’s more like in praise of good writing, a good story, and the environment. This last may seem too obvious to mention because we know that the author is a well known environmentalist. However, this book is not just an opportunity to recognize the importance of the environment; it is a hymn to it. You cannot read this story and come away unmoved by the significance of our environment and its importance to the characters in the story, and to the island.
The setting is the environment; more specifically the sea. The characters and the sea are entwined in a dance, an embrace, which we soon understand, can at any given time act in favour of the human characters, or not. It is this overarching character, the sea, unmoved one way or the other by all that is happening, and bearing no animosity to anyone, that forms the backdrop to this story. This sea can bring you a bounty, yet you can get lost in it, gone to drift.
Of the two main human characters, one is Lloyd, a young boy, who is worried about his grandfather, who has not returned from a fishing trip, in what Llloyd perceives as good time. None of the other characters, mainly fisher families, Lloyd’s family, those who interact with them along the various coastal areas, seem to be very worried. You are left to wonder if, as they suggest, that perhaps there is nothing wrong; Lloyd is unduly anxious. On the other hand, you wonder if it is that they do not wish to make Llloyd feel any more worried than he is. You fear that they know something that he does not, that they are not telling him the whole truth.
The other character is Gramps, Lloyd’s grandfather, whose voice Lloyd can hear in his head, “I come from a line of fishermen.” This is as powerful as if the statement were, “I come from a line of kings.” We believe this, a line of greatness.
Gramps also tells his story. And so we have the two stories, Lloyd looking for his grandfather, using any means necessary, his good friend, Dwight, the Coastguard, Jules, the lady who cares about the dolphins, his mother, his ne’re-do-well father, his grandfather’s friends; and Gramps’ story of his own father, his many brothers, all fishermen, and his mother. We come to care about Gramps’ family, as well as for Lloyd, whose determination and bravery in his search for Gramps often astounds us.
It eventually dawns on us that Gramps is not on any of the main cays off the coast of the island, but is stranded on what seems to be a mere rock in the sea. The tension is created not only by Lloyd’s search for his grandfather, the question of how dolphins fit into this scenario, and whether his grandfather can be found in time, but also by seeing the old man himself wondering how long he can survive on little crabs and rain water, the latter coming sporadically.
The author uses the device of alternate chapters for each of these two human characters, so that we can measure Lloyd’s attempts against the will of his grandfather to survive. It works; we are not distracted; rather, we are caught up in the emotion of the situation.
The language is measured, like a tale told on dark nights by lantern light, increasing the feeling of being at the mercy of the elements. Descriptions are rich, as seen in Gramps recollection of a sunrise.
Then I realised that I could see my hands and feet as a grey light stole across the sea. And to the east I saw the sky turning into a hundred different colours from the blue of a summer day to the dark purple of the thickest squall, from the pale pink of the inside of a conch shell to the bright orange of a ripe mango, until the round ball of the sun itself came up and the colours of the sky spread over the water and even warmed our faces. I knew then that the best place to see a sunrise was at sea.
It is for this reason alone that you cannot hurry through this book. Even as the mystery deepens, you need to stop to see what the characters see, to feel what they feel.
Then, suddenly you may be caught unawares, by an intervention into this beauty, alerting you to danger, which may be lurking, as in Gramps’ description of his brothers going to sea:
It was late when they left and I thought the night was darker than usual. We stood on the beach and watched them go. The boats made a ragged triangle formation, like a flock of birds, and for a few seconds their wakes were visible. Then they pierced the night and disappeared.
And you understand in the sameness of their going to sea, the routines of their lives, the power of nature, of the dark, of the night, of the sea.
The dialogue, which is a mixture of standard Jamaican English, and what I like to call a modified Creole, is well handled. It effectively represents the mother tongue of our people, but does not become so deep as to make it difficult to read, or for the book to travel to other countries. From Lloyd to his grandfather, to Jules the uptown girl, their voices ring true. And this use of language, this love and respect for the sea, for the creatures of the sea, bridges what could be social differences and makes us one.
Consequently, just as you come to respect the environment, you come to respect the people who depend on the sea, and their way of life. The author does not allow you to feel any pity for the difficulty of their lives. This is a great skill, to describe another life with empathy. You may even begin to think that like Lloyd and his grandfather, these people are the salt of the earth, or the sea, their nobility in facing the dangers of the sea surpassing those who make a safe living from the land. And then the author brings you back to reality. These people are no better or worse than people anywhere. They have their nobility, they have their heroes and their villains, and their awful betrayals.
This coming of age story of a boy called Lloyd, who loves his grandfather, will leave many wondering about the meaning of it all, and yet Lloyd must make sense of it.
This book should be read in all schools. To say that a book should be read in schools, makes it sound like a textbook, or the over-worked literature set-books. However, I would want all our young people to read it, to discuss it, and that seems to be the only way to get it to them. This is a beautiful book!
