In Another Place, Not Here [Paperback]

Dionne Brand (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 2, 2000

Acclaimed by Adrienne Rich as "fierce, sensuous . . . a work of great beauty and moral imagination," In Another Place, Not Here tells of two contemporary Caribbean women who find brief refuge in each other on an island in the midst of political uprising. Elizete, dreaming of running to another place to escape the harshness of her daily life on the island, meets Verlia, an urban woman in constant flight who has returned to her island birthplace with hopes of revolution. Their tumultuous story moves between city and island, past and future, fantasy and reality.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

This is poet, essayist, and film-maker Dionne Brand's first novel. The same sensuous language and imagery that informs her other work is present in this story of two contemporary Caribbean women. Elizete and Verlia appear to be opposites. Elizete is a poor islander who dreams of escaping to a life of freedom and prosperity in a city. Verlia is a jaded Canadian who leaves Toronto to return to her island homeland where she hopes to find revolution and authenticity. Each woman sees her fantasy in the other, comparing their urban and rural lifestyles, material wealth and poverty, and different spiritualities. While this book is certainly about the differences between the two women's lives, it is also very much about the power of our fantasies and how we project onto people the things we want to see. Brand's supple, poetic prose is well-suited for her many-textured subject. --Rebecca Brown --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Elizete lives on an unnamed Caribbean island and has worked the cane fields from morning to night for as long as she can remember. Given to a virtual stranger by a birth-family that could not bear another mouth to feed, she has had a life of hardship and deprivation mediated by occasional small kindnesses. Verlia, another Caribbean-born woman, fled the islands for Canada at 17 and has spent 18 years among left-wing activists hoping to foment social change. Both women share profound feelings of dislocation and disillusion, and for a brief instant?when Verlia travels to Elizete's island to participate in an incipient revolutionary effort?the two find solace in each other. While the novel follows a jagged course that delves into the tormented souls of both characters, its plot is less compelling than its poetic, dream-filled musings. Brand, a Trinidad-born filmmaker and writer living in Canada, has written a masterful, if nonlinear, expose about Caribbean poverty, cultural displacement, and human need. Both haunting and beautiful, this is recommended for most collections.?Eleanor J. Bader, New Sch. for Social Research, New York
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Grove Press; 1st Grove Press Pbk. Ed edition (February 2, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0802136338
• ISBN-13: 978-0802136336
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #698,296 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars I learned some things, November 22, 2007

By 

Anthony J. Harkin "Major Tony" (TX) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Main Street in Crisis: The Great Depression and the Old Middle Class on the Northern Plains (Paperback)

I learned some things from this book, but it does amble on like a boring textbook sometimes. The stories of the the families were very interesting. My great-grandma's cows in N.E. SD ate cockleburs during the depression, and trying to hit water during a well drill was distressing.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A Post-Colonial work about race, oppression, and power..., April 1, 2001

By 

Jenn Gunter (Toronto, Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: In Another Place, Not Here (Paperback)

I just finished reading this one for a class. It is a very complex novel that I think would benefit from multiple readings. The novel is extremely discriptive and tells the story of two women from different parts of the world and how their paths ultimately cross. Brand's prose is intricately woven with a combination of confusion, wonder, and anger that emminates through fresh use of voice and perception. The book illustrates the impact of the imperialism and the slave-trade in the Carribean and takes place in both the islands and Ontario. I recomend this one but caution that it is a book that takes effort to really get into it.