Customer Reviews

Moses Ascending (Caribbean Writers)

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When I read this book, I thought it was a satire of something that might have happened in 1970s London. I even sort of enjoyed it, though the treatment of Brenda and the racism in the book was jarring at times. Then I read the introduction. The best thing about this book is that years later, the author was slapped at an event by a female activist for his horrid portrayal of women in the book. For a man writing about a character who supposedly had sex with hundreds of white women and managed to get Brenda to sleep with him even after he let his friend try to rape her without interfering, this author seems to have neither respect for nor understanding of women.

I have read Selvon's earlier work called The Lonely Londoners which was written 20 years earlier which introduced the main protagonist in this novel, the delightful Moses, a black immigrant from Trinidad. Moses has moved on and upwards in the 20 year gap and has become the owner of a property in Shepherds Bush. Moses occupies the top floor and rents the other rooms to a random assortment of other immigrants. Selvon writes with much humour and yet delivers alot of the undercurrent feelings as Black people were starting to become a political force. However, there are some serious flaws in the narrative. The account of the Asian tenant who is running an illegal immigrant smuggling racket is far fetched and Moses seems to be mindless of whether he is dealing with Muslims or Hindus. This book is very much a work of its time and there will be readers who find some of the novel potentially offensive: one character is called Paki, Moses asking for pork from a halal butcher and Selvon's treatment of Brenda, the only female character in the novel, is misogynistic. Notwithstanding these defects I enjoyed this engagingly funny and historically interesting account of Moses who tries to live apart from the day to day ramifications of life in London and live simply whilst writing his memoirs.

This is a classic of postcolonial literature. It's witty, incredibly clever, and hilarious. Is it true that Heinemann is letting it go out of print? That's a loss to the world of literature.