Fiction and Poetry Reviews
Beyond Sangre Grande: Caribbean Writing Today
by Cyril Dabydeen, edited,
Toronto, ON: Tsar, 2011
226 pp. $28:95
In the introduction to this anthology of Caribbean writers, editor Cyril Dabydeen explains the title. “Beyond Sangre Grande” refers to V.S. Naipaul’s assertion that the “creative writer, if he is to be worth anything, must extend himself beyond provincialism, go beyond being just a ‘village writer’.”
Many of the 43 writers (both men and women) in this collection have certainly gone beyond the village as they live outside of the Caribbean (several in Canada), and the subjects tackled are universal: family, love, discrimination, poverty, and home. Dabydeen must have had his work cut out for him as the wealth of material presented tends to over small snippets from each writer. Poets are often represented by one or two poems, while story writers have one story.
The arrangement of the selections is alphabetical by author’s last name, and Dabydeen includes mini-bios of the writers. The dates of publication would have been a helpful addition, and because some writers did not want their ages known, birthdates are also not included. Many of the names are familiar: Nalo Hopkinson, Derek Walcott, Austin Clarke, Claire Harris, Olive Senior, and Sam Selvon, for example, are well known, and their selections are excellent. Hopkinson’s story “A Young Candy Daughter” shows her interest on speculative fiction as the main character makes magic with the brass pot of a Salvation Army Santa Claus. Olive Senior’s story “The Two Grandmothers” captures the voice of a girl being tugged between two sides of her family. The prose runs on pell-mell as if the girl is speaking or writing to her mother and explaining her changing relationships with her grandmothers. It’s a gripping look at the pressures on a girl growing up and how she tries to negotiate them.
Reviewing books means I get to read writers I may not easily come across, and this collection offers several authors I will look up. Horace I. Goddard has an intriguing story called In the Light of Darkness,” in which the main character, Wilbur, is a self-described “gay hairstylist” with a gambling problem. At the casino he hears a man make a horrible comment about homosexuals. Goddard links the discrimination against gays to Wilbur’s gambling. He cannot control either, but he “felt secure” with the slot machines.
The poetry is this volume is equally arresting. Peter Jailall’s “My Agie’s Hands” pays respect to a grandmother’s hard-working hands: “Those loving fingers / Bathed in coconut oil / Helping each other, / Moving like a team / Of dedicated doctors.” Often the selections pay tribute to women who raise families alone or with minimal help. And many emotions are explored. Mark McWatt’s two love poems are beautiful. In one, the speaker concludes by saying, “Know that the gift of your heart, made / with such easy grace, far outranks / the paper love of poets such as I . . . / I think longingly of fire, while you just light it: / those who live their love don’t have to write it.”
This volume is packed with gems, and it’s guaranteed that readers will find more than one piece that burrows into their mind and stays there.
Congratulations Alecia, job well done!!
Keep writing…. you just never know….your next novel could very well turn into a movie!! You can do it so continue writing!
Take care,
Grace
Alpharetta, Georgia, USA